THERE  can  be  no 
hope  of  progress  or 
freedom  for    the 
people  without  the  un- 
restricted and  complete 
enjoyment  of  the  right 
of  free  speech,  free  press 
and  peaceful  assembly. 

Gift  of 

IRA  B.  CROSS 


GIFT  OF 


HUMAN  LIFE 


BY 

S.  S.  KNIGHT 


NEW  YORK 

R.  F.  FENNO  &  COMPANY 
18  EAST  17TH  STREET 


COPYRIGHT,  1910, 
BY  S.  S.  KNIGHT 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I.  THE  HABITAT  OF  MAN    ...  9 
II.  THE  LENGTH  OF  TIME  DURING 

WHICH  MAN  HAS  EXISTED    .  29 
III.  THE  PHYSICAL  LIMITATIONS  OF 

EXISTENCE 56 

AiV.  THE  PURPOSE  OF  LIFE    ...  76 

iV.  KNOWLEDGE  AND  EDUCATION    .  99 

-4VI.  EELIGION  AND  ETHICS    ...  120 

VII.  LOVE 156 

VIII.  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  FUTURE    .  180 


DEDICATION 

THIS  volume  is  dedicated  to  my  Mother 
and  my  Wife — the  two  women  whose  in- 
fluence has  most  largely  shaped  my  life,  and 
whose  companionship  has  afforded  me  so 
much  happiness.  It  was  written  with  the 
hope  that  it  might  be  of  value  to  my  two 
children,  and  may  they  find  as  much  hap- 
piness in  life  as  has  the  author. 


HUMAN  LIFE 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  HABITAT  OF  MAN 

IN  reviewing  the  facts  concerning  human- 
ity, which  are  well  authenticated  at  the  pres- 
ent date,  with  the  object  of  getting  a  com- 
posite view  of  the  greatest  of  all  "world 
riddles  " — "  Life  " — possibly  nothing  tends 
so  largely  to  expand  our  mental  horizon  as 
a  study  of  the  earth  itself  or  man's  place  of 
abode.    The  ideas  of  the  educated  and  cul-' 
tured  mind,  at  the  beginning  of  the  twen- 
tieth century,  upon  cosmogony,  are  neces- 
sarily of  such  a  character  that  man's  here-j 
to  fore  undisputed  boast  of  being  the  objec-'j 
tive  and  acme  -of  creation  or  evolution  is \j 
forced   into   that   great    mass   of  theories 
which  science  has  proven  to  be  absolutely 
untenable.     Since  the  relative  importance 
of  the  factors  of  heredity  and  adaptation 
has  become  known,  the  environment,  or  con- 
ditions   surrounding    man's    existence    in 


10  Human  Life 

times  past,  is  of  exceptional  importance,  as, 
from  an  understanding  of  these  prehistoric 
limitations,  we  are  better  able  to  judge  what 
must  hare  been  the  achievement  of  the  in- 
dividual and  the  race  than  we  could  be  when 
in  ignorance  of  these  facts. 

The  length  of  prehistoric  time  (so  far  as 
our  earth  is  concerned)  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  intelligent  labor  and  thought,  as 
well  as  the  occasion  for  much  dissenting  of 
opinion  and  more  or  less  designed  misstate- 
ment.  Until  very  recently,  it  has  been  dif- 
ficult to  reconcile  the  theories,  as  promul- 
gated by  the  authorities  in  the  various  de- 
partments of  science;  but,  notwithstanding 
this,  some  light  may  be  obtained  by  the  sum- 
marization -of  the  most  plausible  hypotheses 
now  advocated.  We  cannot  take  the  space 
to  go  into  detail  concerning  these,  but  will 
merely  touch  upon  the  most  salient  points. 

The  constancy  of  the  supply  of  heat  fur- 
nished by  the  sun  and  the  division  of  the 
year  into  definite  seasons  was  one  of  the 
first  phenomena  which  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  man  at  the  dawn  of  history,  and  in 
the  many  accounts  of  the  creation  which  we 


The  Habitat  of  Man  11 

find  in  literature  we  see  the  feeble  attempts 
of  man  to  account  for  what  he  observed.  Al- 
though the  knowledge  which  we  have  at  the 
present  time  is  not  complete  enough  to  war- 
rant any  feeling  of  pride,  yet  we  do  know 
enough  to  say,  with  certainty,  some  things 
concerning  the  solar  system.  We  know  that 
our  sun  cannot  forever  radiate  away  its 
heat  into  space  without  sometime  becoming 
as  cold  or  colder  than  we  are,  unless  the 
energy  which  it  is  losing  in  the  form  of  heat 
be  restored  to  it  by  some  means  not  at  this 
time  known.  Sir  William  Thomson  (Lord 
Kelvin)  has  calculated  that  at  the  present 
rate  of  solar  radiation,  which  amounts  to 
about  twenty-eight  calories  per  minute,  per 
square  centimeter,  at  the  distance  of  the 
mean  radius  of  the  earth's  orbit,  it  would 
have  taken  somewhat  more  than  fifteen  mil- 
lion years  for  the  heat  generated  by  the  con- 
traction of  the  sun's  mass  from  the  orbit  of 
the  outer  planet,  Neptune,  to  its  present 
size,  to  have  been  radiated  away  into  space. 
This  means  that  gravity,  as  a  source  of  heat 
development,  at  the  rate  of  solar  radiation 
now  known,  would  account  for,  perhaps, 


12  Human  Life 

twenty  million  years'  expenditure  of  energy 
in  reducing  the  sun's  diameter  to  but  one- 
thirteen-thousandth  part  of  what  it  once 
was.  Not  only  does  the  nebular  hypothesis 
fall  short  of  accounting  for  the  facts,  as 
will  subsequently  be  shown  in  this  one  par- 
ticular of  the  length  of  time  during  which 
our  solar  system  has  existed,  but  it  does  not 
account  for  the  variation  in  the  obliquity 
of  the  poles  of  the  planets,  which  are  the 
attendants  upon  the  sun;  nor  does  gravita- 
tive  attraction  alone  enable  us  to  account 
for  the  tremendous  velocities  of  some  of  the 
stars  through  space,  such  as  Arcturus, — so 
that  it  may  be  safely  assumed  that  we  shall 
be  forced  to  modify  our  ideas  as  to  the  value 
of  the  nebular  hypothesis  as  a  working 
basis,  before  we  can  harmonize  our  deduc- 
tions from  astronomical  and  geological 
grounds.  Fortunately,  the  study  of  the 
spiral  nebula}  has  done  much  to  elucidate 
our  conceptions  of  the  formation  of  the 
planetary  systems,  and  from  the  discoveries 
made  concerning  these  highly  attenuated 
bodies  of  matter,  a  new  hypothesis  has  been 
formed  which  will  completely  harmonize, 


The  Habitat  of  Man  13 

perhaps,  with  these  above  stated  facts, 
which  could  not  be  made  to  accord  with  the 
nebular  theory  as  previously  held. 

One  source  of  the  continued  acquisition 
of  energy  by  our  sun,  whose  value  is  hard 
to  estimate,  is  the  shooting  stars,  or 
meteors,  which  constantly  fall  into  it.  As- 
tronomical records  show  that,  from  the 
earth  alone,  no  less  than  twenty  million 
shooting  stars  are  daily  within  the  limits 
of  vision,  and  inasmuch  as  the  solar  system 
is  moving  with  a  velocity  of  some  twenty 
miles  per  second  through  space,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  number  of  meteors  which 
would  come  within  the  influence  of  the  sun, 
being  as  it  is  about  one  and  one-third  mil- 
lion times  the  volume  of  the  earth,  would  be 
practically  infinite.  What  then  must  be 
said  of  the  amount  of  energy  acquired  by 
the  sun  from  these,  although  each  meteor 
may  have  a  mass  of  but  a  few  grams,  and 
perhaps  may  be  only  several  hundred  miles 
away  from  its  successor?  It  is  clearly  dem- 
onstrated that,  if  no  such  additions  of 
energy  were  received  by  our  sun,  in  about 
ten  million  years  its  diameter  would  be 


14  Human  Life 

reduced  to  one-half  of  what  it  is  now,  and 
its  mass,  where  now  it  exists  as  a  gas,  would 
then  become  a  solid,  at  least  upon  the  sur- 
face, and  the  quantity  of  heat  received  by 
the  earth  would  become  so  small  that  life 
here,  as  we  know  of  it,  would  be  an  impos- 
sibility. But  if  it  be  granted  that  the  sun 
annually  gathers,  by  its  gravitative  attrac- 
tion, a  combined  mass  of  matter  equal  to 
the  one-hundredth  part  of  our  earth,  at  a 
distance  away  from  its  center  equal  to  the 
main  radius  of  the  earth's  orbit,  the  energy 
dissipated  by  its  radiation  of  heat  at  its 
present  rate  would  be  accounted  for,  while 
the  sensible  heat  of  the  sun  would  not  di- 
minish, and  the  supply  would  be  kept  up  in- 
definitely. That  such  additions  of  mass  are 
made,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  but  as  to  their 
quantity,  we  cannot,  with  our  present 
knowledge,  even  hazard  a  guess. 

In  speaking  of  the  solar  heat  and  man's 
dependence  upon  it  in  a  constant  definite 
quantity,  as  one  of  the  conditions  of  his 
existence,  perhaps  it  will  give  us  some  just 
appreciation  of  his  place  in  nature  when 
we  consider  that  the  earth  receives  some- 


The  Habitat  of  Man  15 

what  less  than  one  two-billionth  part  of  the 
heat  radiated  away  by  the  sun,  and  while 
this  expression  makes  the  quantity  which 
we  receive  seem  rather  small,  it  is,  never- 
theless, large  enough  annually  to  melt  a 
layer  of  ice  one  hundred  arid  seventy-five 
feet  thick — all  over  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
and  is  a  little  miore  than  one  six-thousandth 
part  of  the  quantity  of  heat  which  would  be 
generated  by  the  burning  of  a  mass  of  coal 
as  large  as  the  sun. 

The  researches  of  Halley  and  Adams  have 
shown  that  from  some  cause,  probably  the 
result  of  gravity  acting  in  conjunction  with 
the  varying  eccentricity  -of  the  earth's  orbit, 
the  motion  of  the  moon  has  been  slightly 
accelerated  as  time  went  on,  while  the  diur- 
nal motion  of  the  earth  has  been  reduced  by 
the  action  of  the  tides,  and  that  the  amount 
of  this  loss,  in  time,  is  equal  to  about  one 
second  in  the  length  of  our  day,  in  168,000 
years.  Now,  this  retardation  in  the  earth's 
motion  has  not  taken  place  at  a  uniform 
rate  if  caused  by  the  reaction  of  the  tides, 
as  the  nearer  to  the  earth  the  moon  was,  the 
greater  would  be  the  tides>  and,  conse- 


16  Human  Life 

quently,  the  greater  would  be  the  reaction ; 
L  e.,  the  retardation.  But  assuming  that 
this  retardation  took  place,  on  the  whole, 
at  twice  the  rate  now  prevailing,  we  would 
still  have  a  period  of  six  million  years  since 
the  mo-on  was  thrown  off  by  the  earth,  when 
our  days  were  but  three  hours  long. 

Turning  from  the  theories  of  astronomy, 
which  are  obviously  more  or  less  inaccurate* 
owing  to  their  very  nature  and  the  char- 
acter and  duration  of  the  observations  upon 
which  they  are  based,  we  come  to  the  nearer 
and  more  certain  deductions  of  geology. 
Here  we  have  the  phenomena  of  denudation 
and  deposition  with  which  to  deal,  and  in- 
asmuch as  these  are  measurable  at  many 
places,  and  under  many  conditions  upon  the 
earth  to-day,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  com- 
putations made  from  these  measurements 
cannot  be  far  from  the  truth.  We  know 
that  practically  all  of  the  great  formations 
of  the  earth  were  depositions  of  material 
from  water  which  contained  them,  and  that, 
in  many  cases,  heat  caused  these  strata  to  be 
metamorphosed  or  crystallized  ages  after 
they  were  deposited,  and  that  in  this  crys- 


The  Habitat  of  Man  17 

tallization  many  of  the  fossils  remaining 
imbedded  in  the  deposited  matter  were  de- 
stroyed. Concerning  this  deposition  we 
know  that  it  is  going  on  to-day  in  the  At- 
lantic and  Pacific  Oceans,  where,  in  the 
deeper  portions  the  Globigerina  ooze  is  fill- 
ing in  these  depressions  with  a  deposit,  re« 
sembling  chalk,  at  the  rate  of  perhaps  an 
inch  per  century.  We  know  that  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  and  several  other  ocean  areas  are 
being  filled  in  with  silt  at  the  rate  of  as 
high  as  three  inches  per  century.  This  silt 
is  brought  down  in  the  tributary  rivers  and 
emptied  into  the  gulfs.  We  also  know  that 
large  areas  in  the  Indian  Ocean;  are  being 
covered  with  coral  and  the  debris  from  the 
coral  reefs.  We  are  absolutely  certain  that 
every  geological  period  has  had  its  char- 
acteristic fauna  and  flora,  and  that,  in  both 
the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms,  some 
persistent  types  have  connected  it  with  both 
the  past  and  the  future,  so  that  the  fossils 
have  become  the  "  open  sesame  "  to  the  geo- 
logical records.  We  further  know  that  the 
strata  composing  the  earth's  surface  are 
subject  to  elevation  and  subsidence,  such  as 


18  Human  Life 

is  now  going  on  in  the  delta  of  the  Nile,  on 
the  coast  of  the  Netherlands,  and  in  many 
other  places,  and  that  such  movement  is  a 
measurable  quantity,  given  only  the  neces- 
sary time. 

The  total  thickness  of  known  strata  meas- 
ures but  about  one-three  hundred  and  twen- 
tieth part  of  the  earth's  diameter,  or,  in 
round  numbers,  twenty-five  miles.  Thirty 
thousand  feet  of  this  is  quite  readily  iden- 
tified as  belonging  to  the  old  Archaic  or  Lau- 
rentian  period,  and  constitutes  the  oldest 
stratified  deposit  known.  Even  in  this,  we 
find  the  remains  of  the  Eozoon  Canadense, 
which  is  now  universally  acknowledged  to 
be  the  petrifaction  of  a  foraminiferous  liv- 
ing organism  with  a  chambered  shell.  This 
means  that,  at  this  time,  the  earth's  atmos- 
phere must  have  been  very  similar  to  what 
it  is  at  the  present,  and  that  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  sea  was  somewhere  between  the 
boiling  and  the  freezing  points  of  water. 
What  time  had  elapsed  since  the  earth  was 
thrown  off  by  the  sun  in  an  incandescent 
state  can  only  be  faintly  imagined.  At 
the  rate  of  deposition  given  for  the  deepest 


The  Habitat  of  Man  19 

of  ocean  deposits,  this  Archaic  period  would 
have  taken  perhaps  thirty-six  million  years ; 
but  inasmuch  as  the  water  may  have  been 
far  warmer  then  than  now,  and  the  rainfall 
more  abundant,  and  the  forces  of  denuda- 
tion in  all  respects  more  active,  this  figure 
may  be  excessive.  The  next  eighteen  thou- 
sand feet  of  strata  are  easily  identified  as 
Lower  Silurian,  by  the  Diatoms  which  occur 
imbedded  in  them,  and  these  formations  in- 
clude some  -of  the  largest  deposits  of  lime- 
stone known.  At  our  rate  of  calculation, 
this  deposit  would  require  no  less  than  nine 
and  one-half  million  years,  and,  in  assuming 
this  figure,  no  account  is  made  of  the  in- 
tervals of  time  during  which  no  deposit  took 
place,  although  such  periods  of  inactivity 
must  necessarily  have  been.  The  Upper 
Silurian  strata  consists  of  twenty  thousand 
feet,  the  fossils  -of  which  are  the  lower 
fishes,  and  for  which  we  must  assign  a 
period  of  time  equal  to  no  less  than  twenty- 
five  million  years,  inasmuch  as  these  de- 
posits are  limestones  and  sandstones,  or  the 
remains  of  water-living  animals  and  plants. 
Coming  now  to  the  Devonian  and  Car- 


20  Human  Life 

boniferous  periods,  the  strata  of  the  former, 
which  is  filled  with  fossils  of  the  dipnoi, 
and  the  latter  with  those  of  the  amphibia; 
we  have  deposits  aggregating  about  forty 
thousand  feet,  and  inasmuch  as  long  inter- 
vals of  time  must  have  existed  during  the 
subsidence  and  elevation,  and  vice  versa,  of 
the  land,  while  the  process  of  coal-forming 
was  going  on,  it  is  certain  that  our  rate  of 
deposition  as  heretofore  used,  is  entirely  too 
high.  Dawson  and  Huxley  have  estimated, 
after  most  careful  investigation,  that  the 
period  of  time  consumed  in  laying  down 
the  coal  measures,  could  not  be  less  than 
six  million  years,  and  upon  this  basis  it  is 
safe  to  assume  that  between  seventy-five 
and  eighty  million  years  were  consumed  in 
laying  down  the  Devonian  and  Carbonifer- 
ous deposits.  This  makes  Paleozoic  time 
occupy  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  million 
years,  which  is  probably  under-  rather  than 
over-estimated.  The  flora  of  the  Carbonif- 
erous period  was  composed  of  tree  ferns 
of  the  Sagillaria  and  Lepidodendron  species 
which  have  since  become  extinct;  but  the 
Lingula,  a  shell  in  the  Cambrian  and  Upper 


The  Habitat  of  Man  211 

Silurian  formations,  and  the  Terbratula, 
another  shell,  is  found  in  the  Devonian 
rocks.  Both  of  these  are  found  living  to- 
day, of  the  same  identical  genus  and  spe- 
cies. 

In  the  Silurian  rocks,  we  find  the  remains 
of  an  air-breathing  scorpion,  very  similar  to 
that  found  to-day,  which  shows  that  the 
atmosphere  at  that  remote  period  was  prac- 
tically the  same  as  we  have  at  the  present 
time. 

In  the  Mesozoic  time,  we  find  deposits 
aggregating  some  fifteen  thousand  feet,  and 
inasmuch  as  the  Triassic  sandstones  were 
formations  of  slow  deposition,  our  hereto- 
fore established  rate  will  not  answer  the 
conditions.  It  has  been  estimated,  after 
the  most  careful  study  of  the  Triassic  and 
Jurassic  measures,  that  probably  no  less 
than  thirty  million  years  were  occupied  by 
these  periods,  and  that  the  chalk  deposits 
of  the  Cretaceous  must  have  taken  at  the 
present  known  rate,  in  like  formations, 
somewhat  over  six  million  years  of  cease- 
less activity.  This  gives  to  Mesozoic  time 
a  period  of  thirty-six  million  years,  as  a 


22  Human  Life 

minimum,  and,  from  what  we  know  of  the 
rate  of  biological  evolution,  this  figure  is 
conservative.  The  first  period  of  the  Meso- 
zoic  time  was  characterized  by  monotremes, 
the  Jurassic  by  marsupials,  and  the  latter 
by  the  first  of  man's  direct  progenitors,  the 
placentals.  The  flora  of  this  period  con- 
sisted almost  entirely  of  gymnosperms,  or 
naked  seed  plants,  and,  as  far  as  we  know, 
at  the  close  of  this  second  great  division  of 
geological  time,  conditions  on  the  earth 
were,  in  all  respects,  very  much  as  they  are 
to-day. 

Concerning  the  climatic  conditions  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Cenozoic  time,  we  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Lower  Silurian  epoch, 
until  then,  there  were  no  climatic  zones 
upon  the  earth.  Not  only  have  coral  forma- 
tions been  found  in  what  are  now  Arctic 
waters,  when  we  know  that  such  reefs  are 
formed  only  in  waters  where  a  moderately 
warm  temperature  is  constantly  main- 
tained, but  the  cephalipods  of  the  genus 
Ammonitoidea  are  found  in  what  is  now  the 
Antarctic  zone,  and  in  the  torrid.  While, 


The  Habitat  of  Man  23 

at  the  present  time,  we  cannot  see  how  the 
obliquity  of  the  earth's  poles  to  the  plane  of 
the  ecliptic  could  have  been  changed  after 
the  earth  began  its  career  as  an  independent 
planet,  yet  the  facts  above  stated  show  that 
the  climatic  zones  must  have  been  unknown 
during  the  Tertiary  period.  Our  common 
cypress,  which  is  now  so  plentiful  in  Florida 
and  California,  had  very  close  relatives  liv- 
ing as  far  north  as  Spitzbergen,  as  lately 
as  Miocene  time.  Magnolias,  which  are  now 
so  abundant  in  all  of  the  Gulf  States,  are 
plentifully  found  in  the  Miocene  strata  of 
Greenland. 

Returning  to  the  length  of  the  Tertiary 
period,  it  is  well  to  note  that,  covering 
Wyoming  and  Nebraska,  there  was  an  im- 
mense lake,  at  least  as  large  as  Lake  Supe- 
rior is  to-day,  and  into  which  several  quite 
large  rivers  emptied,  whose  head  waters 
were  in  the  surrounding  mountain  ranges. 
This  lake  was  at  one  time  at  least  five  thou- 
sand feet  deep,  and  was  completely  filled  up 
by  the  fine  mud  and  silt,  as  the  formation 
now  shows,  although  at  the  known  rate  of 
filling  in  of  smaller  modern  lakes,  into  which 


24  Human  Life 

rivers,  which  originate  in  glaciers,  empty, 
this  would  have  taken  the  better  part  of 
fifty  thousand  years.  This  figure  is  partic- 
ularly conservative,  as  during  the  Eocene 
period,  there  could  have  been  neither  gla- 
ciers nor  melting  snowfields  to  assist  in  the 
denudation  at  the  head  waters  of  the  tribu- 
tary rivers.  During  the  Miocene  period,  many 
of  the  best  geologists  hold  that  America 
and  Europe  were  connected,  and  there  are 
certain  similarities  in  their  fauna  and  flora 
which  make  this  very  probable.  Supposing 
that  this  depression  which  constitutes  the 
bed  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean,  took  place 
at  the  highest  known  rate  of  subsidence, 
as  measured  upon  the  coast  of  Sweden  to- 
day, it  is  almost  impossible  to  state  the 
amount  of  time  that  necessarily  elapsed 
from  the  beginning  of  the  sinking  of  this 
strip  until  it  finally  went  below  the  sur- 
face of  the  water.  That  such  changes  in 
level  did  take  place  in  the  Tertiary  period, 
no  one  can  doubt,  as  chalk  deposits  in  Eng- 
land, which  must  have  been  laid  down  in 
the  deep  oceans,  have  now  an  elevation  of 
thousands  of  feet.  The  Nummulite  lime- 


The  Habitat  of  Man  25 

stone  of  this  same  period  is  found  in  both 
the  Alps  and  the  Himalayas,  at  an  eleva- 
tion as  great  as  ten  thousand  feet.  The  con- 
sideration of  the  fact  that  the  greatest 
known  rate  of  elevation  or  subsidence  is, 
perhaps,  scarcely  more  than  two  feet  per 
century  makes  the  figure  of  five  hundred 
thousand  years,  as  a  minimum  for  Pliocene 
time,  seem  rather  conservative. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  era  the 
finishing  touches  were  placed  upon  some  of 
the  greatest  of  the  geological  works.  The 
folding  of  the  strata,  which  had  been  going 
on  for  a  long  period  in  Eastern  New  York, 
was  brought  to  an  end  by  a  violent  rupture 
therein,  and  the  out-rushing  igneous  rock, 
which  was  subsequently  cooled  rapidly  by 
the  floods  of  water  flowing  over  it,  gave  us 
the  beautiful  palisades  of  the  Hudson  Kiver. 
In  the  west,  this  folding  resulted  in  the 
Kocky  Mountains  and  the  Coast  Kange, 
with  their  attendant  high  plateaux.  In 
Europe,  the  Alps  and  the  Pyrenees  Moun- 
tains both  belong  to  this  period,  while  the 
grandest  and  highest  of  all  mountain 
chains,  the  Himalayas,  of  Asia,  were  the 


26  Human  Life 

culminating  effect  of  the  gigantic  foldings 
of  the  earth's  crust. 

The  deposits  of  the  Tertiary  period  will 
aggregate  somewhat  more  than  three  thou- 
sand feet,  and,  inasmuch  as  this  entire  time 
was  one  of  continued  change  in  level,  or  the 
fluctuation  between  the  subsidence  of  the 
earth's  strata  on  the  one  hand  and  the  ele- 
vation on  the  other  (particularly  in  the 
Pliocene  period),  it  is  very  hard  to  form 
any  conjecture  as  to  the  actual  amount  of 
time  required  to  do  this  work.  Certainly, 
from  what  we  know  of  the  rate  at  which 
like  phenomena  are  taking  place  at  the  pres- 
ent time  in  Northeastern  North  America, 
in  Northwestern  Europe,  and  Western  Asia, 
the  figure,  as  sometimes  given,  of  ten  mil- 
lion years  seems  very  conservative. 

In  the  brief  review  which  we  have  just 
given,  of  what  can  be  conservatively  con- 
sidered the  minimum  limits  of  geological 
time,  we  have  taken  into  account  generally 
only  periods  of  activity,  and  in  but  a  few 
cases  has  any  estimation  been  hazarded 
as  to  the  proportion  which  this  was  of  the 
whole  time  consumed  in  bringing  about  the 


The  Habitat  of  Man  27i 

changes  which  the  fossils  show  so  clearly  to 
have  taken  place  during  the  various  epochs. 
But  one  thing  should  be  kept  clearly  in 
mind,  and  that  is,  that  no  matter  how  long 
geological  time  may  seem,  it  is  but  an  in- 
finitely small  fraction  of  the  period  which 
must  have  elapsed  since  the  world  came  into 
existence,  as  this  globe  had  to  cool  down  to 
below  the  boiling  point  of  water  before 
any  geological  records  could  be  made.  When 
thought  of  in  this  way,  the  Laurentian 
period  becomes  as  but  yesterday,  and  even 
man's  dwelling  place,  which  seems  relatively 
so  large,  dwindles  into  nothingness,  when 
compared  with  the  vastness  of  the  inter- 
stellar spaces  or  the  size  of  the  larger  stars.^ 
Whoever  conscientiously  endeavors  to  form 
any  idea  of  the  teachings  of  astronomy  and 
geology,  must  necessarily  feel  any  prejudice 
which  he  had  for  man  as  the  object  and 
culmination  of  either  the  evolutionary  or 
creative  power,  shrink  at  a  tremendous  rate* 
while  over  his  mentality  comes  the  sense  of 
his  diminutiveness,  which  awakens  in  him  a 
brotherly  feeling  for  even  the  primitive 
single-celled  Laurentian  Eozoon  Canaden- 


28  Human  Life 

sis,  or  the  unnucleated  monera  of  the  pres- 
ent time.  It  must  have  been  this  same  sense- 
perception  in  the  Hindoos  which  made 
them  worship  and  revere  life  wherever  they 
found  it,  and  which  inspired  them  with  so 
active  a  sympathy  toward  all  living  things. 


CHAPTEE  II 

THE   LENGTH   OF  TIME   DURING    WHICH   MAN 
HAS  EXISTED 

IN  the  preceding  chapter,  no  mention  has 
been  made  of  the  length  of  the  Quaternary 
sub-division  of  Cenozoic  time,  and  it  will 
now  be  our  aim  to  briefly  review  this  period 
and  then  investigate  the  evidence  which  we 
have  as  to  how  much  of  this  time  man  has 
been  a  portion  of  its  fauna. 

With  the  opening  of  the  Quaternary 
Period,  we  come  to  what  is  undoubtedly 
the  most  remarkable  era  in  all  geological 
time.  From  a  climate  which  had  been,  here- 
tofore, uniformly,  warmly  temperate,  with 
but  few  exceptions,  we  come  to  a  period 
known  as  the  Glacial,  in  which,  by  a  de- 
pression in  the  temperature,  all  vegetation 
and  animals  in  high  latitudes  were  killed; 
viz. :  in  the  central  west — almost  to  the  Ohio 
River;  in  Europe — to  the  northern  part  of 
Italy — while  the  addition  of  vast  quantities 


30  Human  Life 

of  ice  to  the  oceans,  destroyed  all  life  in 
them  to  about  the  latitude  of  the  northern 
portion  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Nor  was 
this  period  of  cold  confined  to  the  northern 
hemisphere,  as  the  southern  part  of  South 
America  and  Africa  show.  Concerning  the 
cause  of  the  Glacial  Period,  but  little  is 
positively  known.  Of  the  theories  which 
have  been  advanced,  it  seems  very  plausible 
that  perhaps  two  more  clearly  account  for 
the  conditions  which  must  have  then 
existed,  if  we  consider  them  together,  than 
all  the  rest. 

The  geological  record  teaches  us  that  in 
the  so-called  Glacial  Period,  at  least  two 
distinct  epochs  of  low  temperature,  and  the 
consequential  accumulation  of  ice,  are  to 
be  definitely  discerned.  Still  further  back, 
we  see  evidence  of  glacial  action  in  the  Per- 
mian Strata,  and  possibly  as  far  back  as  the 
Cambrian  formations,  although  these  eras 
of  cold  are  not  comparable  with  the  period 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Quaternary  time. 
Croll,  the  Scottish  physicist,  first  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  at  certain  regular 
intervals  of  time,  the  precession  of  the 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     31 

equinoxes,  and  the  eccentricity  of  the  earth's 
orbit,  would  so  act  in  conjunction  as  to 
render  favorable  a  great  many  conditions 
which  would  certainly  all  point  toward  a 
period  of  extreme  cold.  He  calculated  that 
the  earth  was  traveling  around  the  sun  in 
an  ellipse  of  maximum  eccentricity,  and  that 
•winter  was  occurring  in  the  northern 
hemisphere  when  the  earth  was  furthest 
from  the  sun,  for  the  last  time  some  quarter 
of  a  million  years  ago.  About  eighty  thou- 
sand years  after  this  date,  the  coincidence 
of  the  two  phenomena  reached  a  maximum 
effect,  and  about  eighty  thousand  years 
later,  climatic  conditions  were  again  about 
as  we  have  them  to-day.  Upon  this  hy- 
pothesis, another  period  of  extreme  cold 
must  have  existed  some  one-half  million 
years  earlier,  as  calculations  upon  the  same 
premises  as  were  used  in  the  last  compu- 
tation will  show.  It  is  likewise  true  that, 
according  to  this  theory,  there  must  have 
been  at  least  one  other  such  period  further 
back  in  geological  time,  and  it  is  now  to 
be  seen  whether  our  records,  as  shown  by 
the  strata,  establish  these  facts. 


32  Human  Life 

Prior  to  the  -enunciation  of  this  theory  by 
Croll,  the  famous  English  geologist,  Sir 
Charles  Lyell,  from  measurements  of  the 
strata,  had  calculated  that  the  last  period 
of  glaciation  occurred  about  as  Croll  stated, 
and  that  a  period  of  cold  and  ice  far  more 
intense  and  extensive  occurred  some  four  or 
five  hundred  thousand  years  earlier.  Mr. 
Laing  has  shown  that,  in  order  to  make  such' 
conditions  as  must  have  existed  at  this  time, 
not  only  is  a  low  temperature  necessary, 
but  a  certain  amount  of  land  must  have  an 
elevation  sufficient  to  give  the  required  in- 
itial fall  to  the1  ice  river,  so  that  it  may 
move  over  the  obstacles  in  its  way,  and  that 
the  higher  such  elevations  in  the  Arctic 
zones,  and  the  greater  the  humidity  of  the 
air  when  it  strikes  such  elevated  polar  pla- 
teaux, the  more  augmented  will  be  the  prob- 
ability of  glacial  activity.  The  rapidity  of 
the  glacier's  movement  can  have  no  bearing 
upon  the  duration  of  the  glacial  period,  in- 
asmuch as  a  certain  length- of  time  may  have 
been  required  for  the  ice-cap  to  form  and 
push  forward  to  a  certain  place,  and  it  may 
have  remained  there  for  an  indeterminate 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     33 

period,  governed  only  by  the  amount  of 
snow  deposited  upon  the  original  source, 
and  the  rapidity  of  melting  at  the  moraine. 
In  Eastern  England,  no  less  than  four  dis- 
tinct boulder  clays  have  been  found  sep- 
arated by  the  debris  deposited  from  the 
moraines  of  'each  ice  sheet,  and  a  few  hun- 
dred miles  away  in  France,  the  record  is 
so  certain  that  we  know  that  the  Arctic 
fauna  and  flora  gave  away  twice  for  that 
of  the  warmer  parts  of  the  Temperate 
zones. 

We  are  certain  that  both  that  portion  of 
Scandinavia  and  Canada,  which  were  the 
centers  of  the  great  European  and  Ameri- 
can ice-caps,  had  an  elevation  greatly  in 
excess  of  what  it  is  to-day,  at  the  time  of 
the  glacial  epoch.  During  the  first  glacia- 
tion,  Eastern  Canada,  or  that  part  south  of 
Hudson's  Bay,  was  certainly  twenty-five 
hundred  feet  higher  than  it  is  now,  and  the 
area  covered  by  ocean  formations  or  marine 
beds  to  the  southward,  show  that  at  the 
same  time  these  sections  were  very  much 
lower  than  they  are  at  the  present  day.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  ele- 


34  Human  Life 

vation  in  Norway  was  at  least  a  couple  of 
thousand  feet  more  than  at  present;  while 
both  England  and  Ireland  have  risen  a  con- 
siderable amount  since  this  period. 

There  are  other  ways  by  which  we  may 
form  some  estimate  of  the  time  which  has 
elapsed  since  the  melting  away  of  the  great 
glaciers,  besides  that  given  by  Croll.  From 
measurements  taken  on  Table  Kock,  at 
Niagara  Falls,  which  we  know  has  receded 
in  post-glacial  times  from  Lewiston  to  the 
place  which  it  occupies  at  present,  we  are 
certain  that  Lyell  was  not  far  wrong  when 
he  estimated  this  to  have  taken  at  least 
sixty  thousand  years.  Shaler,  on  entirely 
different  grounds, — mainly  the  redistribu- 
tion of  certain  angiosperms — has  arrived 
at  figures  in  excess  of  these.  Calculations 
made  upon  the  canyons  of  the  Columbia, 
San  Joaquin,  and  Colorado  Kivers,  all  show 
the  estimations  previously  given  to  be  con- 
servative. Of  course,  the  figures  given  will 
apply  only  to  the  time  which  has  elapsed 
since  the  melting  of  the  American  ice-cap, 
as  we  have  no  means  of  knowing  that  the 
American  and  European  glaciers  acted  at 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     35 

all  in  unison  in  their  retreat  to  the  north- 
ward. The  manner  in  which  we  can  get 
some  idea  of  the  length  of  time  required  to 
account  for  the  enormous  quantity  of  work 
done  in  the  Champlain  period,  is  by  taking 
into  account  the  deposits  which  lie  in  almost 
all  of  the  great  river  valleys  which  were 
covered  by  the  glaciers,  or  whose  water- 
sheds were  made  into  lakes  by  the  subsi- 
dence of  the  land  to  the  north,  and  the 
rapid  melting  of  that  portion  of  the  ice-cap 
which  contained  stones,  dirt,  and  other  ma- 
terial picked  up  in  the  travels  of  the  glacier 
across  the  country.  The  Rhine,  the  Rhone, 
and  the  Danube  in  Europe,  and  the  St. 
Lawrence,  the  Connecticut,  and  the  Mississ- 
ippi in  America,  all  flow  through  valleys 
lined  with  cliffs  of  loess.  These  accumula- 
tions overlying  the  coarser  sands  and  grav- 
els, and  conforming  to  the  river  valleys, 
have  been  measured  in  the  case  of  the  Rhine, 
and  were  found  to  be  about  eight  hundred 
feet  in  depth.  It  is  unreasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  these  deposits  being,  as  they  are, 
material  thrown  down  out  of  the  water 
after  the  rivers  had  lost  their  transporting 


36  Human  Life 

power,  could  have  accumulated  at  a  greater 
rate  than  that  now  going  on  in  the  rivers, 
such  as  the  Mississippi  and  the  Nile,  to-day, 
and  if  this  was  the  case,  these  deposits  must 
have  taken  no  less  than  three  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  years  to  form.  Inas- 
much as  this  work  was  all  done  during  the 
Champlain  period,  this  figure  can  be  safely 
taken  as  the  minimum  for  the  measure  of 
the  duration  of  that  time. 

Arriving  now  at  the  recent  period  of  Qua- 
ternary time,  we  find  in  Europe  evidences 
of  a  very  short  and  less  intense  period  of 
cold;  in  the  remains  of  the  reindeer  and 
other  Arctic  animals  in  southern  France. 
Associated  with  these,  although  of  a  later 
period,  we  find  the  bones  of  the  cave  bear, 
hyena,  and  lion,  and  in  many  of  the  locali- 
ties intimately  associated  with  these  are 
the  bones  of  man.  In  fact,  since  the  first 
discovery  of  the  paleolithic  implements  in 
the  gravels  of  the  Somme,  there  have  been 
almost  countless  finds  of  human  remains  in 
England,  France,  Belgium,  Spain,  Italy, 
and  Greece,  in  Europe;  Algiers,  Morocco, 
Egypt,  and  Natal,  in  Africa;  in  China, 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     37 

Japan,  India,  Syria,  and  Palestine,  in  Asia ; 
in  Brazil  and  Argentina  in  South  Am- 
erica, and  in  no  less  than  ten  States  of  this 
country,  associated  with  stone  implements 
or  paleoliths,  and  all  of  which,  dating  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Quaternary  period, 
have  established  the  certainty  of  human 
existence  during  the  entire  Quaternary  era, 
beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt. 

The  evidences  of  the  existence  of  the 
human  species  during  Tertiary  time  are 
many,  and  hardly  a  year  goes  by  without 
adding  another  discovery  of  human  remains 
in  the  deposits  belonging  to  this  period.  To 
begin  with,  the  existence  of  man  so  gener- 
ally and  widely  distributed  as  we  find  him 
to  be  at  the  beginning  of  the  Quaternary 
period,  is  almost  prima  facie  evidence  of  his 
occupation  of  the  earth  for  some  time  pre- 
vious. With  the  means  of  communication 
and  the  motives  for  it,  such  as  they  must 
have  been  at  this  remote  period,  we  know 
that  thousands  of  years  would  have  been 
required  to  scatter  any  species  all  over  the 
earth,  as  we  have  seen  that  man  was  from 
the  locations  of  the  remains  found.  Further: 


38  Human  Life 

than  this,  there  are  three  well-authenticated 
cases  where  the  bones  of  Tertiary  animals 
have  been  found,  upon  which  there  were 
cuts  made  by  edged  tools,  which  could  have 
been  made  only  by  human  agency.  Since 
these  have  been  discovered,  crude  imple- 
ments as  well  as  human  bones  have  been 
found  in  no  less  than  a  dozen  places  in  both 
the  Eastern  and  Western  Hemispheres, 
which  attest,  beyond  doubt,  to  man's  hav- 
ing existed  since  the  Middle  Miocene  or 
early  Pliocene  time.  We  not  only  have  the 
opinions  of  such  authorities  as  Barnes, 
Hamy,  Mortillet,  Quatrefages,  and  Delau- 
ney,  to  accept  in  this  matter,  but  the  more 
recent  thorough  investigations  of  Laing  and 
Haeckel. 

Turning  now  from  geological  evidence  to 
that  founded  upon  other  observations,  as  to 
the  length  of  time  man  has  been  an  inhabi- 
tant of  the  earth,  perhaps  one  of  the  most 
interesting  discoveries  was  that  of  the  Tu- 
muli or  mounds  of  shells  of  such  animals  as 
the  oyster,  cockle,  limpet,  etc.,  and,  along 
with  this,  the  bones  of  birds,  wild  animals, 
and  fish,  together  with  stone  implements 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed    3*9 

and  rude  pottery.  These  kitchen-middens 
were  first  discovered  in  Denmark,  but  they 
have  since  been  found  in  many  countries 
where  savages  have  lived  along  the  coast. 
In  many  of  the  Swiss  lakes,  such  as  Zurich 
and  Neufchatel,  there  have  been  found  piles 
driven  into  the  ground,  around  which,  in 
dredging,  human  bones,  as  well  as  stone  im- 
plements, have  been  brought  up,  and  which 
are  now  known  to  have  been  the  dwelling- 
places  and  remains  of  prehistoric  peoples, 
who  located  in  this  manner  so  as  to  pro- 
tect themselves  from  prowling  wild  animals 
and  from  their  savage  neighbors.  From  the 
amount  and  character  of  these  deposits,  we 
are  forced  to  assume  that  the  habitations 
were  used  for  a  long  period,  and  from  geo- 
logical computation  of  the  time  required 
to  deposit  the  silt  around  these  piles  in  the 
Swiss  Lake-villages,  and  from,  the  similar- 
ity of  the  remains  in  the  Danish  peat-mosses 
and  the  kitchen-middens  no  period  could 
be  assigned  to  their  antiquity  of  less  than 
seven  thousand  years. 

Our  earliest  record  of  historic  man   is 
found  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile,  where  we 


40  Human  Life 

can  say  with  certainty  that,  over  seven 
ttiousand  years  ago,  there  existed  a  high 
state  of  civilization  under  the  old  Egyptian 
Empire.  Menes  was  the  first  recorded  king 
who  sat  on  the  throne,  and  during  the  six 
dynasties  of  kings  which  composed  this  pe- 
riod, we  see  the  rise  to  supremacy  of  Mem- 
phis, the  building  of  the  pyramids,  the 
accumulation  of  a  varied  and  extensive 
literature,  and  the  perfection  of  the  indus- 
trial and  fine  arts.  In  fact,  so  faithfully 
and  indestructibly  were  the  lines  of  human 
faces  reproduced  upon  stone  and  other  ma- 
terials, that,  at  this  day,  we  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  identifying  the  different  races  of 
men  from  their  resemblance  at  the  present 
time.  Menes,  himself,  carried  to  completion 
the  great  engineering  feat  of  turning  the 
course  of  the  Nile  so  as  to  obtain  a  site  for 
his  capital,  at  Memphis.  His  successor  was 
not  only  a  patron  but  a  practitioner  of  the 
art  of  medicine.  From  the  monuments  and 
papyri  of  the  great  tombs  of  Ghizeh  and 
Sakkara,  we  have  learned  so  much  of  the 
social  and  political  life  of  Egypt  at  this 
period  through  the  deciphering  of  the  Bo- 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed    r41 

setta  stone  by  Champollion,  that  we  may 
be  said  to  have  a  very  accurate  knowledge 
of  mankind,  as  his  existence  was  condi- 
tioned in  Egypt  from  four  to  five  thousand 
years  before  the  beginning  of  our  present 
era.  From  Memphis,  the  seat  of  the  gov- 
ernment first  shifts  to  Heracleopolis,  and 
then  to  Thebes,  and,  during  these  changes, 
we  see  Egypt  go  back  into  the  night  of  semi- 
barbarism  (comparatively  speaking),  and 
after  a  long  period  of  time  to  again  develop 
a  high  state  of  civilization,  under  a  new 
language  and  a  new  religion,  in  the  eleventh 
dynasty.  Egyptian  influence  extended  from 
the  equator  on  the  south,  to  southern  Syria 
on  the  north,  and  Isis  and  Osiris  were  the 
deities  that  commanded  the  veneration  of 
the  then  civilized  world.  The  kings  of  this 
dynasty  built  the  famous  labyrinth  of  Fay- 
oum,  where  in  the  desert  was  formed  a  large 
artificial  lake  with  tunnels  and  sluices  so 
arranged  that  the  annual  inundations  of  the 
Nile  were  partially  controlled  by  allowing 
the  surplus  water  to  fill  this  lake,  and  in 
the  time  of  a  drouth,  letting  it  out  to  irri- 
gate the  valley  as  needed.  Many  temples, 


42  Human  Life 

obelisks,  and  statues  were  erected,  and  the 
period  was  one  of  social  and  literary  activity. 
About  two  thousand  years  before  Christ, 
the  seat  of  the  government  was  transferred 
from  Thebes  to  the  Delta,  and,  shortly  after 
this,  the  Hyksos  dynasty  began  with  a  con- 
quest by  these  invaders,  who  laid  all  Egypt 
under  tribute.  The  conquerors  adopted 
both  the  civilization  and  the  religion  of 
their  subjects,  and  reigned  over  Egypt  some- 
what more  than  five  hundred  years. 
Their  expulsion  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
new  em'pire,  which  extended  the  Egyptian 
influence  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the 
Mediterranean,  and  subjugated  both  Baby- 
lon and  Nineveh.  From  this  time  on,  we 
are  on  certain  and  firm  historical  grounds, 
and  with  the  founding  of  the  great  library 
at  Alexandria,  by  Ptolemy  Philadelphus, 
Egypt  received  her  last  great  literary  im- 
pulse, and  since  the  fourth  century  of  this 
era  the  part  which  she  has  played  in  the 
struggle  of  humanity  has  been  inconsider- 
able. From  other  data  gathered  by  Homer, 
who  sunk  numerous  shafts  across  the  Nile 
Yalley  at  Memphis,  and  who  brought  up 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed    43 

copper  knives  and  pottery  from  depths  ap- 
proximately of  sixty  feet,  it  has  been  cal- 
culated, from  the  rate  of  deposition  in  that 
valley  to-day,  that  these  remains  are  up- 
ward of  twenty-five  thousand  years  old.  In 
other  places,  Paleoliths  have  been  found 
that  are  undoubtedly  very  much  older  than 
the  oldest  temples  and  tombs.  Furthermore, 
we  know  that  in  all  the  traditions  of  this 
country,  the  first  inhabitants  are  repre- 
sented as  being  autochthonous,  which,  if 
correct,  must  mean  a  very  great  state  oi 
antiquity,  so  far  as  man  is  concerned ;  if  it 
be  granted  that  this  Egyptian  civilization, 
which  is  known  to  have  existed  at  Memphis, 
had  to  develop  of  its  own  accord  in  the  Val- 
ley of  the  Nile,  abundantly  fertile  though 
it  always  has  been. 

In  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  Ti- 
gris Rivers,  we  have  further  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  a  high  state  of  civilization,  as 
taken  from  the  cylinder  of  Sargon  I,  which 
reads,  "Sharrukin  the  mighty  king  am  I, 
who  knew  not  his  father,  but  whose  mother 
was  a  royal  princess,  who,  to  conceal  my 
birth,  placed  me  in  a  basket  of  rushes  closed 


44  Human  Life 

with  pitch,  and  cast  me  into  the  river,  from 
which  I  was  saved  by  Akki,  the  water-car- 
rier, who  brought  me  up  as  his  own  child." 
The  date  of  this  king  is  generally  accepted 
as  about  four  thousand  years  before  Christ, 
and  his  exploits  have  been  found  pictured 
and  described  on  the  relics  taken  from 
Cyprus,  Syria,  and  Babylonia.  He  did  for 
Mesopotamia  what  Menes  did  for  Egypt, 
and  the  prestige  of  his  arms,  and  the  re- 
nown of  his  civilization,  spread  over  all 
Asia  Minor.  As  a  patron  of  literature,  he 
founded  some  of  the  most  famous  libraries 
in  Babylonia,  and  compiled  a  work  of  sev- 
enty-two volumes  on  Astronomy  and  As- 
trology, which  was  even  translated  into 
Greek.  From  recent  researches,  which  have 
resulted  in  the  finding  of  a  great  many  clay; 
tablets  from  the  libraries  of  Mesopotamia, 
it  seems  certain  that  this  Sargon  I,  upon 
his  ascension  to  the  .throne,  found  the  Ac- 
cadian  people  (he  was  a  Semite)  already 
enjoying  a  high  civilization,  with  sacred 
temples,  a  sacred  and  profane  literature, 
and  one  who  had  a  large  and  well-ordered, 
knowledge  of  astronomy,  as  well  as  of  agri- 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     45 

culture  and  the  industrial  arts.  From  the 
archaeological  remains  which  have  been  dis- 
covered, and,  in  particular,  the  marble 
statue  of  a  king  by  the  name  of  David, 
which  was  recently  found  at  Bisinya,  and 
whose  antiquity  is  probably  greater  than 
4,500  B.  C.,  it  is  entirely  conservative  to 
assume  that  Chaldean  civilization  was  as  old. 
if  not  older,  than  that  of  Egypt;  while  no 
figure  can  be  set  upon  the  length  of  time 
which  was  required  in  these  fertile  valleys 
for  this  state  of  affairs  to  develop  from  a 
condition  of  barbarism. 

In  China,  strangely  enough,  where  the 
oldest  historical  records  would  be  expected, 
we  can  find  nothing  to  compare  with  the 
Egyptian  papyri  or  the  Chaldean  clay-cylin- 
ders, and  competent  authorities  are  well 
agreed  that  there  is  great  reason  to  suppose 
that  much  of  the  early  civilization  was 
brought  from  Accadia.  In  any  case,  at  the 
dawn  of  history,  we  find  China  just  as  she 
is  to-day: — an  overpopulated,  agricultural 
country,  where  blind  imitation  of  predeces- 
sors ruled,  and,  consequently,  progress,  un- 
less brought  in  by  conquest,  is  extremely 


46  Human  Life 

slow.  If  the  empire  was  founded,  as  has 
been  supposed,  by  an  Accadian  invasion  or 
immigration,  which  must  have  occurred 
about  5,000  B.  C.,  or  at  least  before  the  time 
of  Sargon  I,  then  these  wanderers  drove  out 
the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  the  Mioutse, 
who  have  been  crowded  at  last  into  the 
mountains  of  the  western  provinces.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  no  greater  date  can  be  as- 
signed to  the  civilization  of  this  country, 
at  the  beginning  of  its  historical  record, 
than  about  2,750  B.  C.,  which  time  is  known 
in  Chinese  tradition  as  the  "Age  of  the 
Five  Rulers." 

Perhaps  next  in  order  of  antiquity,  comes 
the  small  country  known  as  Elam,  lying 
between  the  Tigris  River  and  the  Lagros 
Mountains,  and  extending  to  the  south 
along  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Persian  Gulf 
to  the  Arabian  Sea.  As  in  both  Egypt 
and  Chaldea,  this  country  was  brought  into 
prominence  by  an  aggressive  and  warlike 
king, — the  famous  Cyrus  of  history, — and, 
fortunately,  his  clay-cylinder;  from  one  of 
the  magnificent  libraries  of  Susa,  or  Shu- 
shan;  was  recently  found  by  Mr.  Rassam, 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     47 

amid  the  debris  composing  the  mound, 
which  is  now  the  only  mark  left  to  show 
where  these  great  centers  of  population 
once  were,  in  the  fertile  valleys  and  coast 
plains  of  this  part  of  Asia;  and  this  cylin- 
der is  now  kept,  with  hundreds  from  like 
sources,  in  the  British  Museum  at  London. 
On  this  memorial  cylinder,  Cyrus  gives  his 
genealogy  and  an  account  of  his  exploits, 
and  we  find  that  he  came  from  a  line  of 
kings,  and  held  to  the  popular  faith  of  his 
country,  thanking  and  petitioning  the  whole 
Elamite  Hierarchy  of  gods.  Cyrus  carried 
the  Elamite  arms  into  southern  Syria  and 
Palestine,  and  overthrew  Mesopotamia 
about  2,300  B.  C.  It  was  the  reaction  from 
this  conquest  that  caused  some  of  the  most 
gigantic  struggles  of  antiquity. 

Of  the  Phoenician  cities  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  no  definite  historical  record  can  be 
found  earlier  than  from  fifteen  hundred  to 
two  thousand  years  before  Christ.  The 
Hittite  civilization  and  influence  we  find  at 
their  height  at  about  the  same  time,  but 
here  we  can  get  no  inkling  of  a  greater  an- 
tiquity for  man  than  that  given  in  the 


48  Human  Life 

Middle  Egyptian  Empire.  In  the  cities  of 
Troy  and  Mycenae,  we  find  civilization  at 
its  crest  some  five  hundred  years  later,  and 
it  is  not  until  we  come  to  Arabia  that  we 
again  find  evidence  of  such  high  antiquity 
as  we  find  in  Chaldea  and  Egypt.  The  old 
kingdom  of  Saba  was  built  upon  the  ruins 
of  a  still  older,  known  as  Ma'in,  and  the 
former  was  in  its  decline  as  an  empire  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century,  B.  C. 
Now,  contemporary  history  shows  that  this 
country  has  gone  through  all  the  transfor- 
mations which  Egypt  and  Chaldea  had,  and 
if  this  is  also  true  of  the  Ma'in  kingdom, 
then  a  date  of  great  antiquity  must  be 
given  to  it.  But  these  are  not  certainties, 
while  in  the  cases  of  Chaldea  and  Egypt 
there  can  be  no  mistake.  The  Israelite  civil- 
ization was  at  its  height  under  David  and 
Solomon,  about  contemporaneously  with 
that  of  Troy  and  Mycenae,  and  even  the  He- 
brew tradition  does  not  attempt  to  antedate 
the  year  2,000  B.  C.,  so  that  we  can  obtain 
no  information  from  this  source.  Greece 
flourished  but  five  hundred  years  before  the 
present  era,  and  even  if  we  regard  Homer 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     49 

as  authentic,  no  more  remote  date  can  be 
given  to  their  earliest  civilization  than  that 
of  the  attack  by  the  Hellenes  upon  Troy, 
which  was  about  1,000  B.  C. 

In  the  Western  Hemisphere  archeologists 
are  every  year  making  valuable  discoveries 
in  Mexico  and  Peru  which  will  probably 
give  a  remote  date  for  the  civilizations  which 
flourished  in  these  countries  long  before 
the  conquests  of  the  Spaniards.  The  great 
pyramids  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  on  the 
Mexican  plateau  and  the  similarity  of  their 
design  and  orientation  with  the  Egyptian 
all  point  to  an  interchange  of  ideas  between 
the  East  and  the  West  in  prehistoric  time. 

The  geological  table  given  at  the  close  of 
this  chapter  may  be  of  interest,  as  a  care- 
ful consideration  of  it,  and  the  foregoing 
facts,  will  show  the  real  value  of  man  in  na- 
ture. That  man  is  ascendent  now,  does  not, 
in  the  light  of  experience,  mean  necessarily 
that  he  will  by  any  means  remain  so.  In 
the  warm  Champlain  period,  we  know  that 
brute  mammals  thrived  and  attained  gigan- 
tic size,  and,  as  Dana  aptly  remarks,  "the 
great  abundance  of  their  remains  and  their: 


50  Human  Life 

conditions  show  that  the  climate  and  food 
were  all  that  could  have  been  desired."  Yet 
the  mastodon  and  the  cave-bear  have  gone, 
together  with  countless  other  species  which 
have  become  extinct,  and,  if  science  teaches 
anything  at  all,  it  tells  us  that  nature  de- 
lights in  fostering  one  species  at  the  ex- 
pense of  another.  In  the  case  of  man, 
we  most  clearly  see  this.  "  For  the  histor- 
ical succession  of  vertebrate  fossils  cor- 
responds completely  with  the  morphological 
scale  which  is  revealed  to  us  by  compara- 
tive anatomy  and  ontology.  After  the  Silu- 
rian fishes  come  the  dipnoi  of  the  Devonian 
period, — the  Carboniferous  amphibia,  the 
Permian  reptilia  and  the  Mesozoic  Mam- 
mals. Of  these  again,  the  lowest  forms,  the 
monotremes,  appear  first  in  the  Triassic  pe- 
riod; the  marsupials  in  the  Jurassic,  and 
then  the  oldest  placentals  in  the  Cretaceous. 
Of  the  placentals,  in  turn,  the  first  to  appear 
in  the  oldest  Tertiary  period  are  the  lowest 
primates,  the  prosimise,  which  are  followed 
by  the  simise,  in  the  Miocene.  Of  the  car- 
rhinse,  the  cynopitheci  precede  the  anthro- 
pomorpha;  from  one  branch  of  the  latter, 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     51 

during  the  Pliocene  period,  arises  the  ape- 
man,  without  speech,  and  from  him  descends 
finally  the  speaking  man. 

"Since  the  germ  of  the  human  embryo 
passes  through  the  same  chordula-stages  as 
the  germ  of  all  other  vertebrates;  since  it 
evolves,  similarly,  out  of  the  two  germinal 
layers  of  a  gastrula,  we  infer  by  virtue  of 
the  biogenetic  law,  the  early  existence  of 
corresponding  ancestral  forms.  Most  im- 
portant of  all  is  the  fact  that  the  human 
embryo,  like  that  of  all  other  animals, 
arises,  originally,  from  a  single  cell,  for  this 
stem-cell — the  impregnated  egg  cell — points1, 
indubitably,  to  a  corresponding  unicellular 
ancestor,  a  primitive  Laurentian  proto- 
zoon." 

In  the  foregoing  quotation,  Haeckel 
clearly  states  what  every  geologist  and  em- 
bryologist  plainly  knows  to  be  the  truth, 
and  in  this  case,  as  in  all  others,  does  it 
hold  good: 

"  Because  truth  is  truth,  to  follow  truth 
Were  wisdom,  in  the  scorn  of  consequence." 

For  any  human  being,  endowed  with  rea- 
son, to  wilfully  deceive  himself  could  be 


52  Human  Life 

nothing  less  than  the  height  of  folly.  There 
is  nothing  more  pitiful  in  all  literature  than 
Cicero,  at  the  close  of  his  "  De  Senectute," 
bowed  down  with  years,  and  crushed  with 
grief  over  the  loss  of  his  son  and  intimate 
friends,  saying  that  if  his  belief  in  personal 
immortality  be  illogical  and  untrue,  as  he 
almost  intimates  that  he  thinks  it  more 
than  likely  to  be,  then  he  wishes  to  willingly 
delude  himself  for  the  satisfaction  which 
lie  will  get  therefrom.  How  different  from 
the  man  who,  in  his  impeachment  of  Verres, 
or  his  defense  of  Archias,  runs  the  chance 
of  public  disfavor, — always  little  less  than 
death  to  the  politician, — or  even  to  that 
staunch  patriot,  who,  with  almost  his  last 
breath,  defied  the  powerful  Antony,  al- 
though it  cost  him  his  life!  How  strange 
it  is  that  Tully  did  not  realize  that  alle- 
giance to  the  truth,  regardless  of  whether 
it  be  for  or  against  us,  carries  with  it,  per 
se,  the  greatest  of  all  virtues, — the  virtue 
of  sincerity.  Polonius'  death  demonstrated 
the  truth  of  his  philosophy: 

"  This  above  all :  to  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man.*' 


Length  of  Time  Man  has  Existed     53 

In  considering  this  problem  of  the  origin 
and  destiny  of  man,  which,  axiomatically, 
includes  ourselves,  let  us  remember  that  it 
matters  not  what  we  may  wish,  for  we  have 
no  choice  in  the  matter, — the  truth  is  inex- 
orable, and,  consequently,  cannot  be  influ- 
enced. It  is  directly  up  to  each  human  be- 
ing to  work  out  this  problem  for  himself, 
and  this  can  only  be  done  by  the  fearless 
recognition  of  the  truth,  wherever  found. 
It  is  in  this  spirit  that  the  preceding  and 
the  succeeding  chapters  are  written,  and  if 
they  contain  misstatements  and  errors,  the 
author  will  not  only  most  cheerfully  ac- 
knowledge the  same,  when  proven  to  him, 
but  will  accept  the  logical  conclusions 
drawn  therefrom,  although  they  may  com- 
pletely revolutionize  the  philosophy  of  life 
as  he  now  sees  it,  and  is  trying  to  live  it. 


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CHAPTEE   III 

THE  PHYSICAL  LIMITATIONS  OF  EXISTENCE 

THE  tremendous  strides  made  in  the  sci- 
ences of  biology,  histology,  physiology,  and 
psychology  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century,  in  connection  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  science  of  organic  chemistry, 
have  done  much  to  unravel  the  life-mystery 
from  a  physical  point  of  view.  One  by  one 
the  determining  characteristics  of  the  men- 
tality of  the  genus  homo  have  dwindled 
down  until  to-day  even  reason  in  its  broad- 
est sense  is  granted  by  the  most  conserva- 
tive to  some  of  the  vegetable  forms  of  life, 
and  any  unbiased  mind  will  have  hard  work 
to  determine  the  difference  between  the  so- 
called  "  Brownian  "  movement  of  particles 
of  gamboge  when  macerated  in  a  little 
water,  or  even  of  bits  of  camphor  when 
dropped  upon  the  surface  of  water,  and  the 
movements  of  the  particles  of  a  protoplas- 
mic mass;  although  one  is  caused  by  tem- 

56 


Pliysical  Limitations  of  Existence    57 

perature  changes,  and  the  other  by  chemism. 
The  selectative  growth  of  a  vertex  of  a  crys- 
tal in  a  saturated  solution,  and  the  claw 
of  a  crab,  both  of  which  have  previously  suf- 
fered the  loss  of  their  respective  parts,  are 
perhaps  not  so  different  as  the  words  "or- 
ganic "  or  "  inorganic  "  would  lead  us  to  be- 
lieve when  applied  as  a  classification  to 
their  principals.  We  know  that  in  the  life- 
process,  as  everywhere  else,  the  law  of 
substance  and  the  law  of  the  conservation 
of  energy  are  held  inviolate,  and  the  theory 
which  treats  of  life  as  a  characteristic  en- 
tity apart  from  the  condition  which  makes 
it  possible,  is  certainly  false.  The  matter 
which  composes  the  living  body  is  chemic- 
ally the  samfc  as  that  which  we  find  every- 
where. The  fact  that  some  living  bodies 
have  the  power  to  form  protoplasm  out  of 
its  chemical  elements  or  simple  combina- 
tions of  them,  or  only  assimilate  such  proto- 
plasm after  it  has  been  formed  from  inor- 
ganic matter,  constitutes,  in  the  broadest 
sense,  the  difference  between  the  vegetable 
and  the  animal  life,  as  we  now  know  it. 
But,  whether  living  or  dead,  the  protoplasm 


58  Human  Life 

has  about!  the  same  composition,  and, 
therefore,  it  must  be  that  life  per  se  is  in 
reality  only  the  manifestation  of  a  form 
of  motion.  Science,  by  deduction,  teaches 
us  to  look  upon  the  living  body  very  much 
as  a  theoretically  perfect  motor-generator 
set,  the  line  terminals  of  the  dynamo  be- 
ing the  feed  wires  of  the  motor.  Such  a 
machine,  standing  still,  would  be  "dead" 
in  all  senses  of  the  word,  although,  poten- 
tially, its  integrity  would  be  the  same  as 
when  in  operation.  But,  once  put  in  mo- 
tion, this  machine  would  directly  come  up 
to  speed,  and  maintain  itself  at  its  normal 
rate  of  rotation  until  something  interfered 
with  it,  or  set  up  resistance  within  its  cir- 
cuit. From  this  thne  on,  its  rate  of  rota- 
tion would  diminish  until  it  stopped.  If  its 
integrity  were  suddenly  violated,  this  stop 
would  come  at  once. 

Fifty  years  ago,  heat,  light,  and  electricity 
were  all  talked  of,  and  believed  to  be  forces 
whose  existence  was  in  no  way  dependent 
upon  matter.  Since  the  investigations  of 
Thomson  and  Helmholtz,  there  is  no  un- 
biased scientist  who  can  for  a  minute  think 


'Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    59 

that  the  manifestation  of  any  of  these  could 
possibly  exist  without  material  of  some  sort} 
such  as  in  a  general  way  we  call  matter. 
Even  chemism,  the  most  obscure  of  all  phys- 
ical forces,  we  know  to  be  very  closely  al- 
lied to  gravitative  attraction,  and  to  be  so 
powerful  since  it  operates  through  such 
short  distances.  In  fact,  if  we  adopt  the 
only  known  feasible  hypothesis  to  account 
for  the  formation  of  matter,  we  must,  in  the 
end,  admit  that  motion,  and  not  matter,  is 
the  most  potent  of  all  the  primal  causes 
which  we  can  imagine  to-day.  If  we  could 
eliminate  motion  entirely  from  the  universe, 
we  do  not  know  of  a  single  characteristic 
which  would  be  left,  by  which  we  could 
identify  existence  as  we  know  it,  certainly 
not  even  matter  itself.  Every  investigation 
or  experiment  which  has  been  made  in  the 
domain  of  the  natural  sciences  has  only 
amassed  additional  evidence  to  the  tremen- 
dous amount  already  gathered;  all  going 
certainly  to  prove  that  at  least  the  former 
two  of  the  old  three  universally  accepted 
postulates  were  false,  viz.:  the  free  moral 
agency  of  man,  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 


60  Human  Life 

and  the  existence  of  a  personal  God,  or  a 
power  outside  of  and  superior  to  nature. 
The  latter  will  in  no  wise  interest  us,  inas- 
much as  experience  has  taught  us  that,  in 
general  as  well  as  in  particular,  the  uni- 
verse is  governed  by  law ;  all  honor  to  Hum- 
boldt  and  Descartes  for  so  clearly  demon- 
strating this. 

We  are  quite  sure  to-day  that,  roughly 
estimated,  each  pound  of  human  flesh  repre- 
sents an  amount  of  potential  energy  equal 
to  about  sixteen  million  foot-pounds,  and 
that  all  of  the  life-processes  are,  in  the  last 
analysis,  purely  physical,  and  that  they  fol- 
low physical  laws.  Any  exertion,  either 
muscular  or  nervous,  which  we  make,  over 
and  above  that  supplied  by  the  energy  in 
our  assimilated  food,  will  have  to  be  taken 
from  the  stock  as  represented  in  the  tissue, 
— consequently,  continued  work  means  hun- 
ger; if  continued  longer  without  food,  it 
means  exhaustion,  and  if  continued  longer 
without  food  and  rest  intervening,  it  means 
the  deterioration  of  the  tissues.  The  recent 
investigations  of  Matthews  upon  the  man- 
ner of  nerve  action,  and  the  fact  that  the 


Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    61' 

same  is  due  to  substances  known  as  revers- 
ible gelatines,  as  well  as  to  the  cause  of  the 
negative  variation  of  nerves  exposed  to  ex- 
citing stimuli,  all  show  that  these  most 
complex  of  life's  processes  are  as  purely 
physical,  in  the  largest  sense,  as  the  most 
simple  ones.  The  artificial  fertilization  of 
sterile  eggs  by  the  use  of  dilute  solutions, 
whose  actions  might  almost  be  called  cata- 
lytic, still  further  emphasizes  the  fact  that 
life's  processes,  even  in  the  embryo,  are  es- 
sentially physical.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
sterile  egg  of  the  sea-urchin;  the  two  per 
cent,  solution  of  potassium  cyanide;  the 
continued  constant  temperature  for  a  defi- 
nite time,  and  all  of  the  other  conditions 
which  enter  into  the  development  of  this 
crude  protoplasmic  mass,  are  all  physical 
factors,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  the  re- 
sult is  a  living  organism,  where  we  would, 
according  to  our  old  ideas,  certainly  expect 
an  undeveloped  sterile  egg,  or  a  potentially 
dead  body.  As  with  this  ovum,  so  with  the 
vegetable  protoplasmic  mass  in  the  germ- 
inal radical  of  a  seed :  if  its  development  is 
once  started,  it  must  continue  its  natural 


62  Human  Life 

course  without  interference,  upon  pain  of 
speedy  degeneration  upon  interruption,  and, 
in  this  light,  both  the  egg  and  the  grain  of 
seed  are  places  where  life  can  be  started  (or 
motion  on  a  larger  scale  begun)  rather  than 
living  things  before  their  development  be- 
gan, or  while  they  were  lying  in  their  dor- 
mant state. 

The  death-knell  to  the  theory  of  the  per- 
sonal immortality  of  the  hum'an  soul,  as  or- 
dinarily enunciated,  was  rung  in  1875  by 
the  German  biologist,  Hertzig,  when  he  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  the  living  ovum  into  the 
presence  of  the  ciliated  sperm-cells  under 
the  microscope,  while  in  the  field  of  a  lens 
of  sufficient  power  to  enable  him  to  see 
clearly  what  took  place.  It  is  sufficient  for 
our  purpose  to  state  that  the  minute  the 
spermatozoon  had  pierced  the  cell  wall  of 
the  egg-cell,  the  new  individual  of  that 
species  came  into  existence,  and  had,  po- 
tentially, all  of  the  life-possibilities,  or  was, 
in  fact,  as  much  alive  as  it  would  have  been 
if  this  had  happened  under  conditions  which 
would  have  been  favorable  to  its  further 
development.  The  fact  that  the  fertilized 


Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    63 

egg-cell  immediately  forms  a  mucous  sheath 
the  moment  that  its  nucleus  coalesces  with 
that  of  the  spermatozoon  to  prevent  the  fur- 
ther entrance  of  other  spermatozoa,  has 
done  much  to  give  rise  and  impetus  to  the 
theory  that  each  cell  has  a  soul,  and  thaf 
when  these  two  nuclei  completely  fuse  to- 
gether, the  resulting  cytula,  or  fertilized 
ovum  or  stem-cell,  has  a  soul  peculiarly  its 
own;  which  is  made  up  in  much  the  same 
way  as  two  corresponding  magnetic  fields 
which  are  blended  when  two  magnets  are 
brought  within  the  territory  of  each  other's 
influence  and  unite  to  form  a  resultant  field. 
That  each  of  the  sexual  una-cells  is  distin- 
guished by  a  form  of  sensation  and  motion 
of  its  own,  and  that  this  is  true  throughout 
the  whole  animal  world,  has  given  peculiar 
significance  to  these  empirical  facts  of  con- 
ception; as  these  will  at  once  offer  an  ex- 
planation of  the  mysterious  influence  of 
heredity,  such  as  was  never  possible  here- 
tofore. That  each  human  individual  has  a 
beginning  of  existence  with  the  coalescing 
of  the  nuclei  of  the  parent  cells,  just  as  he 
nas  an  end  of  existence  with  the  violation 


64  Human  Life 

of  the  integrity  of  his  physical  body, 
whether  after  the  lapsing  of  one  second  or 
one  century,  must,  to  anyone  who  has  ob- 
served biological  phenomena  like  the  above, 
be  perfectly  clear. 

With  the  recent  development  of  the  sci- 
ence of  embryology,  there  is  no  longer  any 
ground  upon  which  man  can  lay  claim,  in 
the  largest  sense,  to  free  moral  agency.  Con- 
ditioned as  he  is,  even  before  birth,  by  the 
influence  of  heredity,  which  science  has  now 
localized  to  the  inner  nucleus  of  the  cytula, 
not  only  are  his  natural  tastes  and  temper- 
ament quite  largely  determined  for  him,  but 
often,  in  at  least  as  large  a  sense,  his  mental 
and  physical  possibilities.  It  was  our 
genial  Dr.  Holmes,  who,  some  years  ago, 
said,  "  If  you  would  make  a  man,  you  must 
begin  at  least  four  generations  before  he  is 
born,"  and,  as  embryology  has  since 
proven,  he  spoke  more  truth  than  he 
thought.  Any  person  possessing  a  normally; 
trained  observation  cannot  help  but  note  in 
their  aptitude,  or  in  their  manner  of  doing 
certain  things,  their  debt  to  their  ancestors. 
How  seldom  (we  might  say,  never)  do  we 


Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    65 

find  in  our  friends  what  we  had  pictured 
and  hoped  for,  owing,  perhaps  more  than 
anything  else,  to  the  baneful  influence  of 
heredity.  Degenerate  features,  scrofula, 
epilepsy,  melancholia,  etc.,  are  all  practic- 
ally in  every  case  the  gift  of  some  progeni- 
tor. Tendencies  to  insanity  and  crime  are 
clearly  recognized  to-day  by  the  adminis- 
trators of  the  law,  in  every  civilized  country, 
as  possible  a  legacy  as  coin,  real  estate,  or 
chattels  were  a  few  centuries  ago. 

Whatever  influence  can  be  ascribed  to 
heredity,  as  a  positive  limitation  to  human 
existence,  we  know  absolutely  that  in  a 
much  larger  sense  is  man  a  victim  of  his  en- 
vironment, particularly  during  the  period 
of  his  childhood  and  adolescence.  Professor 
Loeb  has  shown  that  at  least  as  large  pro- 
portion (possibly  one-half)  of  the  influence 
of  heredity  may  be  eliminated  by  the  artifi- 
cial fertilization  of  the  ovum  of  many 
species,  but  embryology  tells  us  that  it  is 
beyond  the  possibilities  of  science  to  ever 
render  impotent  the  adaptive  tendency  of 
the  individual.  With  human  beings,  the  im- 
portance of  environment  is  much  greater 


66  Human  Life 

under  a  high  state  of  civilization  than  in 
the  condition  of  savagery  or  barbarism, 
since  the  possibilities  of  achievement  are 
infinitely  greater  in  the  individual  well-edu- 
cated than  in  a  condition  of  illiteracy.  What 
would  the  mathematical  genius  of  Newton 
or  Leibnitz  accomplish  in  developing  the 
calculus,  had  they  been  born  among  the 
Patagonians  or  the  bushmen  of  Australia? 
Would  Napoleon's  military  talent  have 
availed  him  anything  if  he  had  been  placed 
by  birth  among  the  cliff-dwellers  of  Ari- 
zona instead  of  the  fomenting  political  cor- 
ruption of  overpopulated  France?  Even  in 
a  much  more  restricted  sense,  Austerlitz, 
Marengo,  and  Lodi  could  not  have  become 
noted  as  the  stepping-stones  toward  his  im- 
perialism, had  he  not  attended  the  military; 
school  at  Brienne. 

In  the  discussion  of  this  question,  of  the 
freedom  of  the  will,  or  the  free  moral 
agency  of  man,  it  seems  almost  preposter- 
ous that  educated  people  still  cling  to  a; 
theory  so  at  variance  with  all  known  facts. 
That  all  men  are  created  free  and  equal  is 
not  only  relatively  but  absolutely  untrue 


Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    67 

in  the  largest  sense,  but  that  they  are  all 
entitled  to,  and  have  equal  possibilities,  so 
far  as  is  within  their  power,  is  not  only  the 
meaning  which  the  writer  of  the  "  Declara- 
tion "  intended  to  convey,  but  is  what  every 
fair-minded  man  must  necessarily  accord 
to  all  of  his  fellow-men,  even  regardless  of 
sex.  In  Jefferson's  time,  the  last  clause 
could  not  have  been  inserted,  but  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twentieth  century,  at  least  in 
four  of  the  States  of  this  country,  woman 
has  been  given  her  full  property  rights,  and 
in  one  she  has  full  and  complete  citizenship 
on  an  equal  basis  with  man.  It  cannot  be 
many  years  until  culture  and  a  sense  of 
equity  will  have  been  so  disseminated  that, 
at  least  under  democratic  forms  of  govern- 
ment, woman  will  be  given  her  full  civil  and 
political  rights,  and  regarded,  as  she  justly 
should  be,  as  no  longer  a  forced  parasite  of 
man,  but  as  potentially  his  equal  in  every 
respect. 

While  considering  this  matter,  it  is  worthy 
of  note  that  no  less  an  authority  than  Have- 
lock  Ellis  has  conclusively  shown  that,  not 
only  in  the  moral  world,  where  woman  is 


68  Human  Life 

and  has  been  the  acknowledged  superior  of 
man,  is  she  at  least  his  peer,  but  also  in  her 
intellectual  power  and  physical  develop- 
ment as  concerns  the  evolution  of  the  race 
when  surrounded  by  equally  advantageous 
conditions  has  she  occupied  the  very  van. 
The  chivalrous  and  insane  worship  which 
man  has  bestowed  upon  her  as  an  exchange 
for  her  condoning  his  moral  crimes,  has 
tended  both  to  make  him  lax  in  his  moral- 
ity, by  reason  of  her  readily  granted  for- 
giveness, and  to  rob  her  of  her  rights  as  his 
equal,  by  keeping  her  in  seclusion  and  in- 
capacitated for  self-support.  Probably  no 
one  thing  has  worked  more  harm  to  the 
race  as  a  whole  than  this,  and  it  is  perhapjf 
the  crowning  glory  of  the  age  in  which  we 
are  living  that  woman,  in  America,  no 
longer  has  to  accept  the  physical  and  moral 
derelict  which  the  average  man  is  when 
comes  to  the  age  at  which  he  has  finishec 
"  sowing  his  wild  oats,"  and  wishes  to  settl< 
down  to  a  domestic  existence,  as  a  candij 
date  for  reform  under  the  tutelage  of  a  pui 
and  virtuous  woman;  or  by  refusing  hi* 
proffer  of  marriage,  become  the  laughing-1 


Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    69 

stock  of  not  only  her  suitor,  but  of  her  own 
sex  as  well,  under  the  name  of  "an  old 
maid."  As  woman  has  become  capable  of 
self-support,  man  has  lost  his  power  over 
her,  and  his  accountability  for  his  actions 
has  directly  increased,  just  as  woman  has 
gone  from  under  his  power.  That  woman 
can  have  an  honorable  destiny  to  fulfill 
other  than  as  a  convenience  or  source  of 
am'usement  for  man  is,  at  last,  after  count- 
less ages  of  darkness,  beginning  to  dawn 
upon  the  world  of  culture  and  intelligence. 
Perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  human  limita- 
tions arises  from  the  fact  that  after  the 
gratification  of  physical  desire,  of  what- 
soever kind,  comes  satiety.  The  food  which, 
to  the  starving  man,  was  priceless,  and 
which  afforded  him  keen  delight  as  he  ate 
it,  but  nauseates  him  when  temporarily  his 
appetite  is  satisfied  and  try,  as  hard  as  he 
may,  he  can  contain  no  more.  How  many 
a  man  has  failed  to  realize  this,  and,  after 
a  youth  of  penury  has,  by  the  closest  appli- 
cation, obtained  a  competence,  and  by  its 
use,  a  gratification  of  his  desires,  but  with- 
out consideration  kept  up  his  earning 


70  Human  Life 

power,  and  hoarded  his  wealth,  only  to  find, 
to  his  sorrow,  that  it  was  impossible  to  fur- 
nish gratifications  when  he  no  longer  had 
the  shadow  of  a  desire!  No  matter  how 
much  of  a  gormand  a  man  is  he  can  eat  but 
a  certain  small  quantity  of  food  per  day, 
the  amount  of  which  varies  directly  with 
the  manual  labor  which  he  does,  and,  as  a1 
usual  thing,  the  more  he  is  able  to  purchase, 
the  less  likely  he  is  to  do  that  labor  which 
alone  will  make  his  money  of  value  to  him 
from  a  gastronomic  standpoint.  Should  his 
desire  be  to  pale  "the  lilies  of  the  field" 
with  his  raiment,  he  is  still  limited  to  a 
certain  quantity  and  character  of  vesture, 
so  that  in  comparison  with  "  unreasoning  " 
vegetable  life,  his  pride  will  not  be  greatly 
gratified  should  he  possess  any  sense  of  hu- 
mor at  all.  If  prestige  and  prowess  result- 
ing as  the  outcome  of  any  physical  en- 
deavor be  his  ambition,  he  must  realize 
that  whatever  pinnacle  of  popularity  he 
may  attain  to,  it  will  be  only  a  few  years 
until  he  must  acknowledge  a  successful 
rival. 
In  the  constant  mutation  of  all  the  con- 


Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    71 

ditions  which  surround  human  existence,  we 
find  another  most  potent  limitation  to  life. 
How  few  of  these  vital  conditions,  from  a 
physical  standpoint,  are  under  our  control? 
And  yet  how  important  some  of  the  even 
trivial  ones  really  are?  The  extent  to  which 
we  are  dependent  upon  health,  comeliness, 
wealth,  location,  the  physical  aspects  in  the 
lives  of  our  friends,  and  all  of  those  com- 
plex details  which  go  to  make  up  our 
routine  of  life,  can  hardly  be  over-estimated. 
Starting,  as  the  individual  does,  with  a 
complete  lack  of  experience  from  which  to 
judge,  and  without  even  the  power  to  exer- 
cise his  reason,  as  this  develops  within  him 
after  years  of  mistakes,  until  his  fund  of 
recollection  of  these  errors  constitutes  a 
basis  of  experimental  knowledge,  he  is  at 
best  upon  most  dangerous  ground  in  early 
life.  He  is  handicapped  just  in  proportion 
as  he  has  not  some  guardian  who  pilots  him 
until  he  is  able  to  judge  for  himself  of  the 
character  of  his  actions.  It  is  the  most 
pathetic  thought  which  the  human  mind  is 
capable  of  comprehending,  that  nature 
cannot  be  imprecated,  bribed,  or  frightened 


72  Human  Life 

out  of  her  relentless  rule  of  exacting  full 
and  complete  consequence  of  our  every  ac- 
tion. Ignorance  is  no  plea  for  mercy  be- 
fore her  court,  and  her  penalties  are  exacted 
without  either  fear  or  favor.  Nor  is  her 
tribunal  cognizant  of  any  plan  of  vicarious 
atonement,  but  in  many  cases  partially  are 
we  visited  with  the  penalties  of  our  progen- 
itors' disobedience  to  her  immutable  laws. 
In  view  of  these  truths,  let  us  not  falsely 
be  inflated  with  pride,  because  of  any 
ephemeral  successes.  Let  us  in  the  mo- 
ments of  aggrandizement  remember  Mas- 
sillon,  as  he  stood  at  the  bier  of  "  Le  Grand 
Monarch,"  and  when  we  consider  the  truth 
in  his  opening  statement,  in  that  magnif- 
icent funeral  oration,  "  God  only  is  Great," 
we  must  feel  our  sense  of  importance  leave 
us.  Whoever  stood  erect  with  egotism  over 
the  corpse  of  a  friend,  even  though  he  be  as 
mad  as  Lear,  raving,  "  O  that  a  horse,  a 
dog,  a  rat  hath  life,  and  thou  no  breath! "? 
Our  control  over  our  physical  condition  is 
worthy  of  mention  only  on  account  of  its 
paucity,  and  we  can  never  appreciate  our 
true  position  on  earth,  until  at  times  we  are 


Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    73 

filled  with  the  sentiment,  so  well  expressed 
by  Bryant: 

"  In  sadness  then  I  ponder,  how  quickly  fleets  the  hour, 
Of  human  strength  and  action,  man's  courage  and  his 


It  is  not  for  us  to  be  crushed  with  the  ap- 
preciation of  our  real  lack  of  importance, 
from  a  physical  and  moral  viewpoint,  but 
no  scheme  of  life  can  be  built  upon  a  sure 
foundation  without  an  understanding  of 
what  in  the  case  of  Schopenhauer,  and  some 
other  brilliant  intellects,  formed  the  basis 
of  their  pessimistic  philosophy.  That  we 
are  not  absolutely  free,  morally,  to  select 
our  course,  does  not  keep  us  from  being 
relatively  so,  and,  after  all,  the  destiny  of 
the  individual  is  very  largely  within  his 
power  to  shape.  It  is  only  through  inces- 
sant and  vigorous  struggle  that  anything 
worth  while  is  accomplished,  and  nature,  in 
this  and  many  other  instances,  is  with  us, 
since  we  become  capacitated  for  greater 
endeavor  through  practice,  and  the  habit, 
once  formed,  makes  the  effort  for  advance- 
ment become  almost  an  instinct  within  us, 


74  Human  Life 

so  that  our  mental  activity  does  not  have 
to  be  continually  consumed  in  holding  our 
will  to  the  course,  but  can  be  applied  to 
fighting  our  way  upward  along  it.  Just  as 
fresh  recruits  are  unable  to  render  the  ef- 
ficient service  of  veterans  in  actual  war- 
fare, so  our  capabilities,  morally  and  intel- 
lectually, become  augmented  by  constant 
practice.  In  the  succeeding  chapters,  we 
shall  attempt  to  show  what  is  possible  to 
be  got  from  life  by  the  use  of  all  of  the  ad- 
vantages which  we  have,  and,  in  doing  this, 
we  shall  elucidate  a  philosophy  which  is  as 
consistent  with  the  facts  of  life  as  known 
to  us  as  we  can  make  it. 

In  the  days  of  the  decadence  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  when  perhaps  life  was  as  uncertain 
as  it  ever  was  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
the  walls  of  the  banquet  halls  of  a  certain 
clique  were  always  adorned  with  skulls 
and  other  tokens  of  death,  and  according  to 
all  accounts,  the  mirth  was  more  furious, 
and  the  licentiousness  greater,  as  the  guests 
wrere  brought  to  realize  the  shortness  of  the 
time  during  which  they  had  to  live.  We 
moderns  may  well  get  an  idea  from  these 


Physical  Limitations  of  Existence    75 

feasts,  in  which  the  sentiment  of  Solomon, 
as  voiced  a  thousand  years  earlier — than  the 
instance  cited,  and  under  similar;  condi- 
tions, "let  us  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  for 
to-morrow  we  die,"  is  the  dominating  one, 
and,  in  considering  the  shortness  of  life, 
realize  that  every  minute  should  be  filled 
with  effort,  as  time  which  is  passed  is  gone 
forever.  Even  at  the  best,  whatever  we  may 
elect  to  accomplish,  should  take  all  of  our 
attention,  and,  although  we  may  give  it 
this,  we  will  still  be  able  to  find  moments  in 
which  we  did  not  live  up  to  our  possibilities. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE  PURPOSE  OF  LIFE 

IN  the  preceding  chapters,  we  have  at- 
tempted to  get  a  view  of  life  from  a  purely 
physical  standpoint,  and  to  show  in  what 
ways  our  race  is  connected  with  the  terres- 
trial past,  and  how  much  the  individual  is 
dependent  upon  physical  conditions,  beyond 
his  control,  which  constitute  both  the  back- 
ground and  the  framework  of  his  existence. 
But  as  great  as  are  these  limitations,  they 
are  still  not  so  important  as  they  at  first 
sight  would  seem,  since  at  least  a  portion  of 
each  person's  environment  is  of  his  own 
choosing,  and  both  his  body  and  his  mind 
are,  to  a  greater  or  lesser  degree,  what  he 
may  elect  to  make  them.  Diligence  and 
pertinacity  have  accomplished  wonders 
along  this  line,  and  the  poor  struggling 
manual  laborer  very  frequently  turns  out 
to  be  the  great  discoverer,  not  only  in  the 
province  of  geography,  perhaps  on  the 

76 


The  Purpose  of  Life  77 

"  Dark  Continent,"  but  along  all  the  lines 
of  truth.  Nor  is  even  age  a  bar  to  achieve- 
ment, as  our  own  bard  tells  us : 

"  Cato  learned  Greek  at  eighty ;  Sophocles 

Wrote  his  grand  GEdipus,  and  Simonides 
Bore  off  the  prize  of  verse  from  his  compeers 

When  each  had  numbered  more  than  fourscore  years; 
And  Theophrastus,  at  fourscore  and  ten, 

Had  but  begun  his  *  Characters  of  Men.' 
Chaucer  at  Woodstock,  with  his  nightingales, 

At  sixty,  wrote  the  Canterbury  Tales. 
Goethe,  at  Weimar,  toiling  to  the  last, 

Completed  Faust,  when  eighty  years  were  past." 

However,  it  is  far  more  safe  to  assume 
that,  whatever  we  have  to  do,  should  be 
started  early  in  life,  for,  if  we  are  to  carve 
out  our  own  destinies,  we  shall  need  all  the 
time  which  we  have  at  our  disposal.  While 
fully  realizing  the  limiting  conditions  of 
heredity  and  environment,  it  is  difficult  to 
disprove  the  statement  of  Cassius,  when  he 
says: 

"  Men,  at  some  time,  are  masters  of  their  fates ; 
The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars 
But  in  ourselves;  that  we  are  underlings." 

Perhaps    BuJwer-Lytton    has,    in    other 


78  Human  Life 

words,  more  forcibly  expressed  a  similar 
idea  when  lie  says : 


"  We  are  our  own  fates.    Our  own  deeds 
Are  our  own  doomsmen." 


Let  us  not  shift  the  responsibility  of  our 
being  other  than  we  desire  upon  the  shoul- 
ders of  either  our  progenitors  or  circum- 
stances, but,  taking  what  is,  as  a  fact,  we 
should  try  to  so  regulate  our  conduct  that 
what  we  wish  may  come  to  pass.  It  is  not 
he  who  mourns  the  power  which  he  has  not 
— who  becomes  either  the  master  of  himself 
or  of  others,  as  the  parable  of  the  talents 
tells  us,  but  it  is  he  who,  with  a  strong 
heart,  dares  and  does,  that  achieves  the 
great  things  on  this  earth.  Perhaps  as  close 
an  analogy  as  we  can  get  to  the  real  life- 
condition,  is  to  represent  the  individual's 
power  over  himself  and  his  destiny,  by  one 
line,  and  the  power  of  heredity  and  forced 
environment  by  one  of  equal  length;  then 
his  power  of  accomplishment  will  be  the 
vector  sum  of  these  two  lines.  The  line 
representing  the  uncontrollable  condition 
will  necessarily  be  longer  (as  the  influence 


The  Purpose  of  Life  79 

is  more  powerful)  in  youth,  while,  during 
the  life  period,  it  gradually  shortens  up  un- 
til it  reaches  its  minimum  at  the  physical 
and  mental  culmination  of  life,  or  when  the 
individual  is  at  his  best,  and  lengthens 
again  as  old  age  comes  on,  and  the  physical 
and  mental  forces  decline,  and  habit  and 
environment  become  the  prevailing  factors. 
With  our  responsibility  clearly  before  us, 
then,  let  us  investigate  what  is  worth  hav- 
ing. 

At  this  particular  time,  when  all  of  the 
Occidental  world  is  hopelessly  insane  with 
its  Machiavelian  money  greed,  it  would 
seem  that  one  of  Horace's  sentiments,  ut- 
tered satirically,  had  become  the  slogan  of 
the  battle: 

"Get  place  and  wealth,  if  possible,  with  grace; 
If  not,  by  any  means,  get  wealth  and  place." 

Everything  is  thrown  away  by  the  average 
individual  to-day,  in  his  haste  to  satisfy  his 
desire  for  inordinate  wealth; — friendship^ 
liberty,  decency,  humanity,  honor,  and  even 
life  itself,  is  hurled  into  the  maw  of  this 
Mammon,  which  is  not  satisfied  with  such 


80  Human  Life 

f+> 

sacrifices,  and  gives  only  hard,  cold  gold  as 

a  return  for  the  priceless  jewels  of  the  hu- 
man soul,  and  even  this  usually  at  a  time  in 
life  when  the  little  value  which  the  mental 
ever  possessed  has  gone,  since  there  are  no 
longer  desires  to  gratify  by  it,  with  the  one 
exception  of  that  calling  constantly  for 
more  of  the  counters  which  have  lost  their 
purchasing  power.  Our  forefathers  thought 
of  wealth  as  worth  having  only  because  with 
it  came  leisure,  and  with  leisure  came  cul- 
ture through  application.  Sir  John  Lub- 
bock  has  well  said,  "  If  wealth  is  to  be 
valued  because  it  gives  leisure,  clearly  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  sacrifice  leisure  in 
the  struggle  for  wealth." 

Unfortunately,  our  country  is  going 
through  that  period  which  all  other  na- 
tions that  have  risen  to  "world  power" 
have  had  to  pass  through,  only,  in  our  case, 
we  have  reached  this  period  much  earlier 
in  point  of  time,  owing  to  our  vast  natural 
resources,  the  activity  of  scientific  research, 
and  the  multitude  of  inventions  resulting 
therefrom  within  the  last  century.  But, 
with  the  enormous  increase  in  our  national 


The  Purpose  of  Life  81 

wealth,  the  legislative  branch  of  our  Gov- 
ernment neglected  to  pass  such  restraining 
measures  as  would  insure  that  no  gigantic 
individual  fortunes  were  amassed,  or,  in 
case  that  they  were  to  have  such  wealth, 
bear  its  proportion  of  the  tax;  and,  conse- 
quently, we  are  confronting  a  condition  of 
both  anarchy  and  socialism,  inasmuch  as, 
to-day,  our  law-making  and  higher  judiciary 
branches  of  Government  both  have  a  de- 
cided leaning  toward  whatever  is  favorable 
to  capital,  as  against  the  interests  of  the 
laboring  people.  Our  lower  judicial  and 
executive  officials,  however,  are  in  this 
country  and  in  England,  owing  to  rank 
partisan  political  influence,  almost  hope- 
lessly under  the  domination  of  organized 
labor,  whose  leaders  (necessarily  dema- 
gogues) use  all  the  means  within  their 
power  to  corrupt  our  system  of  jurispru- 
dence to  further  their  own  ends.  It  remains 
to  be  seen  whether  our  Government,  owing 
to  its  democratic  form,  will  be  able  to  right 
these  evils  and  withstand  the  stress  and 
strain  which  such  a  changed  social  system 
must  necessarily  involve.  Eemembering  our 


82  Human  Life 

experience  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War, 
which  was  brought  about  by  very  similar 
causes,  we  have  every  reason  to  be  hope- 
ful of  the  outcome.  Our  vast  alien  popula- 
tion is  the  only  factor  which  would  be  de- 
cidedly against  us  at  a  time  such  as  this, 
since  these  foreigners  have  not  had  the  priv- 
ileges of  citizenship  where  they  were  born, 
and  into  them  has  been  instilled  the  blind 
hatred  of  all  who  possess  wealth,  owing  to 
the  monarchical  feudal  oppression  of  the 
poorer  laboring  classes,  by  the  titled  and 
plutocratic  nobility  of  Europe.  The  most 
crying  need  of  our  time  is  a  law  equitable 
for  poor  and  rich  alike,  and  a  judicial  and 
executive  system  which  will  see  that  this 
law  is  enforced  and  its  penalties  are  im- 
posed impartially. 

Perhaps  the  worst  feature  about  the  pos- 
session of  wealth,  is  that  it  tends  to  dwarf 
and  belittle  the  finer  sensibilities  of  man. 
Its  acquisition  becomes  a  passion  of  such 
violence  that,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  its 
possessor  no  longer  cares  for  anything  but 
the  few  paltry  pleasures  which  it  will  buy. 
And  as  few  as  these  apparently  are,  they. 


The  Purpose  of  Life  83 

are  even  less  upon  closer  examination,  since 
only  the  counterfeits  of  anything  of  real 
moral  value  can  be  purchased  for  money. 
Purity,  sincerity,  culture,  or  love,  owing  to 
their  nature,  never  could  be  bought  for  gold. 
Yet  many  an  individual  has  acquired  the 
opposite  of  the  four  "  pearls  of  great  price  " 
just  mentioned,  by  having  too  much  money 
at  his  disposal ;  and  most  truly  has  it  been 
said  that  "  poverty  is  one  of  the  greatest 
teachers  of  virtue."  In  fact,  if  it  were  not 
for  the  truth  of  our  American  aphorism, 
that  "three  generations  cover  the  time  it 
takes  one  of  our  wealthy  families  to  go 
from  shirt-sleeves  to  shirt-sleeves,"  our 
wealthy  aristocracy  would  be  much  more 
profligate.  There  can  be  no  heritage  of  equal 
value  to  children,  so  long  as  their  poverty 
does  not  interfere  with  their  fundamental 
education,  comparable  to  their  being  born 
in  straitened,  rather  than  in  opulent,  cir- 
cumstances. Consequently,  we  must  accept 
the  fact  that  beyond  a  small  competence 
set  aside  against  age,  money  has  no  value 
of  moment,  nor  is  it  worthy  of  greater  than 
a  reasonable  effort  being  spent  to  acquire  it. 


84  Human  Life 

In  this  age  of  bustle  .and  hurry,  the  nerv- 
ous system  is  operated  at  a  very  high*  ten- 
sion, and  as  a  result  often  refuses  to  do  the 
work  demanded  of  it.  As  a  consequence, 
artificial  stimulants  are  resorted  to,  with 
the  most  baneful  effects  upon  our  citizen 
body.  Caffine,  thermo-bromine,  nicotine, 
narcine,  alcohol,  and,  frequently,  chloral, 
cocaine,  morphine,  and  hyoscine,  are  used 
in  some  quantity,  and  often  under  several 
forms,  for  this  purpose  by  over  seventy-five 
per  cent,  of  our  population;  and  we  have 
seen  the  statement  that  over  ninety  per 
cent,  of  the  males,  over  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  are  addicted  to  some  narcotic  habit  in 
this  country.  As  a  result  of  this,  the  vital- 
ity of  the  individual,  suffering  from  these 
habits,  is  eventually  lowered,  owing  to  the 
effect  which  such  stimulants  have  upon  the 
involuntary  muscular  fibre;  while  the  over- 
wrought nervous  system,  sooner  or  later, 
collapses,  and  we  become,  both  mentally 
and  physically,  human  wrecks.  Particu- 
larly is  the  taking  of  the  weaker  stimulants, 
such  as  are  more  commonly  used,  harmful 
to  children,  inasmuch  as,  at  this  period  of 


The  Purpose  of  Life  85 

development,  nature  has  about  all  that  she 
can  well  care  for,  without  interference  from 
the  outside,  and  abnormal  activity  of  the 
imagination  at  this  time  is  not  to  be  de- 
sired; since,  under  these  circumstances 
with  the  majority  of  human  beings,  the 
imaginative  impulse  runs  more  to  sensual 
than  to  aesthetic  things. 

The  demands  of  our  present  civilization 
upon  the  individual,  especially  if  he  belongs 
to  the  coterie  constituting  the  so-called 
social  set,  is  so  great  for  both  time  and 
effort,  that  the  use  of  narcotic  stimulants 
with  this  class  is  even  greater  than  with  the 
majority.  Hence,  it  happens  in  America, 
where  wealth  is  often  acquired  very  quickly, 
that  instead  of  bringing  with  it  leisure, 
health,  education,  and  refinement,  as  it 
should,  we  see  very  frequently  the  opposite 
result.  On  this  account,  in  our  country, 
we-  have  no  aristocracy,  in  any  real  sense 
of  the  word,  and,  in  general  we  are  forced 
to  believe  that  real  culture  and  refinement 
are  becoming  all  the  time  more  rare.  The 
late  Mark  Twain  has  well  illustrated  this 
tendency  in  his  trite  character  sketch,  "  The 


86  Human  Life 

Man  who  Corrupted  Hadleyburg."  If  our 
age  tends  toward  degeneration  ethically 
from  this  cause,  it  does  so  even  more  from 
a  physiological  point  of  view.  It  is  becom- 
ing more  imperative  all  the  while  that  we 
ascertain,  for  certain,  that  those  with  whom 
we  must  enter  upon  intimate  relationship, 
should  be  able  to  show  a  clean  bill  of  health, 
not  only  in  a  strictly  physical  sense,  but  in 
a  moral  sense  as  well.  To-day,  luxury  and 
vice  in  our  centers  of  population  are  cor- 
rupting and  ruining  a  far  larger  proportion 
of  our  young  and  middle-aged  men  than 
ever  before.  Since  all  branches  of  our  Gov- 
ernment are  influenced  by  plutocratic 
power,  we  are  at  a  loss  immediately  to  rec- 
tify these  evils  by  closing  up  the  dens  of 
vice,  and  raising  the  age  of  consent,  to  stem 
the  tide  of  infamy. 

Any  system  of  ethics  is  valuable  as  a  guide 
for  conduct  just  to  that  extent  to  which 
our  interest  is  aroused.  Inasmuch  as  with 
us  all,  self  is  always  the  paramount  con- 
sideration, the  safest  and  surest  basis  upon 
which  we  can  build  an  ethical  system  is 
self-interest.  Every  human  being  of  Intel- 


The  Purpose  of  Life  87 

ligence  must  sooner  or  later  realize  that  he 
is  on  earth  primarily  by  no  choice  of  his 
own,  and,  since  he  is  here,  it  is  of  the  first 
importance  to  him  that  he  should  know, 
early  in  life,  in  just  what  way  he  will  be 
able  to  secure  the  most  out  of  his  terrestrial 
existence.  Now,  as  we  take  it,  happiness, 
in  its  broadest  and  best  sense,  is  alone  the 
desideratum  which  is  per  se  worth  the  in- 
dividual's effort,  and,  in  the  aggregate,  is 
worth  the  pains,  both  as  an  end  to  be  at- 
tained, and  through  the  effects  of  the  strug- 
gle of  obtaining  it  upon  others.  By  hap- 
piness, we  mean  that  feeling  of  content- 
ment and  satisfaction  which  should,  at  all 
times,  be  with  the  conscientious  and  sincere 
being,  whether  he  is  expecting  to  live  a  few 
more  decades,  or  if  he  has  arrived  at  that 
inevitable  hour  which  must  sometime  come 
to  all.  In  other  words,  let  his  end  come 
when  it  will,  if  he  has  happiness,  in  our 
sense,  he  feels  and  knows  that  he  has  had 
all  that  he  could  get  out  of  life,  and,  if  he 
had  to  live  it  over  again,  he  would  wish  to 
operate  upon  only  those  principles  which 
he  had  used  to  guide  his  existence.  In  this 


88  Human  Life 

sense,  then,  should  happiness  be  the  pur- 
pose of  life,  we  will  now  attempt  to  show 
what  conditions  must,  of  necessity,  be  ful- 
filled in  order  to  attain  it. 

Happiness,  for  the  individual,  is  but 
slightly  dependent  upon  circumstances  out- 
side of  his  control,  and,  in  general,  is  the 
result  of  living  up  to  the  highest  moral  pos- 
sibility, which  means  the  development  of 
selMn^jthe_ highest  conception.  Since  any 
environment  can  be  made  to  serve  the  pur- 
pose, we  are  always  so  conditioned  that 
some  degree  of  happiness  may  be  ours. 
The  presenc^_cj^h^bje£ts_o£aar  affection, 
in  the  form  of  human  beings,  is  perhaps  an 
actual  necessary  detail  of  our  environment, 
without  which  we  cannot  experience  that 
feeling  of  satisfaction  and  contentment 
which  we  call  "happiness." 

The  matter  of  the  greatest  importance  is 
so  ordering  your  life  that,  in  all  your 
actions,  you  may  be  equitable  in  the  most 
amplified  sense  of  the  word.  This  has,  at 
all  times,  been  understood  by  those  teachers 
of  humanity  who  have  been  reformers  or 
saviors,  from  the  priests  of  Osiris  in  Egypt 


The  Purpose  of  Life  89 

and  Zoroaster  in  Bactria,  more  than  five 
thousand  years  ago,  to  Abbas  Effendi  in 
Palestine,  within  the  last  century.  And, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  world  has  ad- 
vanced perhaps  less  in  the  understanding 
and  practice  of  this,  than  in  any  of  the 
truths  of  lesser  importance.  The  exposi- 
tion of  the  Decalogue  of  the  Pentateuch  is 
less  refined  and  more  constricted  in  mean- 
ing and  application  than  the  Negative  Con- 
fession in  the  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead, 
or  the  Vedantic  philosophy,  as  given  in  the 
older  Hindoo  writings,  or  in  the  more 
modern  Upanishads.  From  this  point  of 
view,  the  ethics  of  the  Zend  or  of  the  Chi- 
nese sages  are  infinitely  beyond  the  best 
modern  practice  of  a  majority  of  the  people 
in  any  part  of  the  earth.  But  all  conscien- 
tious and  fearless  thinkers,  regardless  of  the 
date  or  locality  in  which  they  existed,  have 
realized  that  in  every  sense  the  "  Gojdga 
Rule"  is  the  only  safe  guide  for... conduct, 
if  contentment  and  real  happiness  were  the  ^ 
end  sought.  And  if  we  once  get  thoroughly  ) 
fixed  in  the  individual's  mind  that  this  is 
certain,  and  that,  no  matter  what  the  in- 


90  Human  Life 

tention,  if  our  acts  are  not  ordered  in 
accordance  with  this  fundamental  principle 
of  equity,  we  cannot  be  happy;  we  can  rest 
assured  that  the  individual  would  no  sooner 
pursue  a  line  of  action  which  he  absolutely 
knows  will  end  in  his  own  misery,  than  he 
would  wilfully  take  a  dose  of  poison.  It  is 
the  putting  of  ethical  matters  upon  a  plain 
commonsense  basis  that  will  greatly  assist, 
socially  and  morally,  in  revolutionizing  the 
world.  We  have  too  long  deformed  and 
twisted  facts  to  fit  our  fancies  and  preju- 
dices, and  we,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the 
human  race,  have  paid  "a  pretty  penny" 
for  our  delusion.  The  prevalence  in  all 
of  the  Western  countries  since  Constantine 
raised  Christianity  to  the  prominence  of  a 
State  religion,  of  a  belief  in  a  scheme  of 
vicarious  atonement,  has  worked  inesti- 
mable harm  to  the  human  race.  Certainly, 
in  one  particular,  the  doctrine  taught  by  the 
gospel  of  Gautama  Buddha  is  immeasur- 
ably further  advanced  ethically  than  that 
of  his  subsequent  rival,  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
if  we  accept  their  gospels  as  correct  reports 
of  their  teachings.  Our  blood,  to-day,  is 


The  Purpose  of  Life  91 

tainted  with  venereal  diseases,  and  our 
minds  with  a  predisposition  to  infamy,  be- 
cause our  ancestors  were  not  taught,  and 
did  not  know,  that  from  the  consequence 
of  their  actions,  both  physically  and  men- 
tally, they  could  not  -escape.  How  many 
men  would  work  day  and  night  to  accumu- 
late wealth,  at  the  expense  of  their  fellows, 
through  unfair  advantage  and  unjust 
means,  if  they  only  knew  that  this  could 
not,  on  account  of  immutable  law,  add  one 
iota  to  their  happiness  after  they  had 
secured  posession  of  their  so  much  coveted 
gold?  How  many  women,  for  the  consider- 
ation of  a  home  of  leisure  and  luxury, 
would  rush  into  a  marriage  "of  conven- 
ience "  with  a  man  for  whom  they  knew 
they  had  no  semblance  of  an  affection,  if 
they  felt,  with  certainty,  that  nature  does 
not  discriminate,  even  for  a  marriage 
license  and  a  religious  ceremony,  between 
prostitution  within  the  bonds  of  wedlock, 
and  without,  and  that  the  horrors  of  re- 
morse and  disappointment  are  just  as 
frightful  in  one  case  as  in  the  other? 
How  many  young  men  would  go  out  into 


92  Human  Life 

the  world  with  a  Satanic  sneer  upon 
their  faces,  a  cigarette  between  their  lips, 
and  a  glass  of  champagne  in  their  hands, 
to  sow  their  wild  oats  under  the  tutelage 
of  their  older  degenerate  friends,  if  they; 
fully  realized  that,  in  this  one  act,  they 
were  forever  incapacitating  themselves 
for  the  highest  pleasure  of  life,  and  that  no 
matter  what  their  lives  might  be  thereafter, 
that  nature  would  ruthlessly  hold  them  to 
the  strictest  accountability  for  their  actions, 
and  that  ignorance  would  be  no  plea  for 
mercy  before  her  bar?  This  inexorable 
impartiality  of  nature  is  at  once  the  saddest 
and  the  sublimest  matter  of  contemplation, 
depending  entirely  upon  whether  we  are 
considering  the  awful  weight  of  her  penal- 
ties or  the  magnificence  of  h-er  rewards. 
The  old  axiom  of  prudery  that  "knowledge 
often  comes  hard,"  is,  in  the  cold  light  of 
fact  and  reason,  a  most  palpable  absurdity. 
It  is  to-day,  the  man  and  woman  who 
knows;  not  necessarily  from  his  or  her  own 
experience,  but  from  the  authentic  records 
of  the  results  of  the  actions  of  others, 
whose  motives  of  narration  cannot  be  ques- 


The  Purpose  of  Life  93 

tioned,  who  are  well-equipped  to  fight  the 
battles  of  life,  and  get  from  terrestrial  ex- 
istence all  the  real  pleasure  which  is  to  be 
obtained.  It  is  from  such  simple  yet  grand 
souls  that  we  have  inspirations,  and  fortu- 
nate is  that  individual  who  can  call  him- 
self a  friend  to  a  man  or  woman  whose  life 
has,  from  the  earliest  childhood,  been  so 
ordered  that  purity  and  sincerity  have  been 
kept  inviolate,  and  all  of  the  fundamental 
conditions  of  equity,  as  applicable  to  our 
fellow  human  beings,  have  been  observed. 
A  friendship  with  this  character  of  human 
being  is  one  of  the  few  unalloyed  pleasures 
of  life,  inasmuch  as  their  company,  when 
present,  or  their  memory,  when  absent,  is 
equally  delightful.  But  to  get  the  highest 
enjoyment  from  such  a  person,  we  must 
not  only  strive  to  reach  his  or  her  level, 
but,  just  in  proportion  as  we  do  attain 
their  moral  altitude,  we  will  have  our  capac- 
ity for  enjoyment  augmented. 

Perhaps  in  nothing  more  than  in  our 
moments  of  relaxation  and  amusement 
should  we  be  careful  that  we  make  our 
actions  accord  with  this  law  of  equity. 


94  Human  Life 

How  many  a  careless  thing  we  do  without 
thinking  what  the  result  will  be  upon  some- 
one else!  While  the  indulging  in  some 
amusements,  such  as  a  game  of  chance,  for 
an  insignificant  stake,  in  order  to  maintain 
the  interest,  may  be  done  with  impunity  by 
parties  whose  financial  condition  is  such 
that  the  counters  involved  are  of  no  moment 
to  them,  and  the  stability  of  their  tempera- 
ment is  sedate  enough  so  that  the  excite- 
ment of  the  game  will  not  fascinate  them 
with  a  snake's  charm;  yet  are  these  partic- 
ular participants  sure  that  this  is  true  of 
all  of  the  company  at  such  times?  If  not — 
and  in  no  gathering  of  this  kind  can  we  be 
sure — there  is  a  possibility  of  great  harm 
being  done.  The  same  is  also  true  of  an 
occasional  glass  of  stimulant,  so  much  in 
vogue  on  all  social  occasions;  of  the  occa- 
sional cigar  or  cigarette;  of  a  little  gossip 
or  scandalous  small-talk,  which  we  all  enjoy 
so  much;  and  of  a  thousand  and  one  other 
things  which,  in  themselves,  are  almost  pos- 
itively not  so  harmful  when  properly  con- 
ditioned, but  which  may,  and  frequently  do, 
become  the  means  of  a  fellow  mortal's  ruin*. 


The  Purpose  of  Life  95 

It  is  the  lack  of  discerning  and  realizing 
our  responsibility  in  these  matters  of  con- 
duct that  causes  almost  all  of  the  misery 
of  the  world.  It  is  not,  however,  enough 
that  we  act  equitably  only  toward  our 
friends  and  strangers,  but  we  must,  within 
reasonable  limits,  follow  the  injunction 
which  the  Chinese  philosopher  has  so  well 
enunciated  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago: 
"Kequite  hatred  with  goodness."  In  this 
particular  instance,  Lao-Tse's  philosophy 
is  more  sensible  than  Christ's,  who  com- 
manded us  to  turn  the  other  cheek.  It  is 
not  the  part  of  good  judgment  that  we 
should  throw  ourselves  open  to  the  ravages 
of  our  enemies,  but  it  is  essential  that  we 
do  not  wilfully  harm  or  wrong  even  the 
least  of  human  beings.  It  has  been  the 
most  unfortunate  thing  for  the  Occidental 
world  that  those  in  high  authority  in  the 
Christian  movement  should  have  so  belittled 
their  physical  self  in  comparison  with  their 
spiritual  natures,  that  anything  pertaining 
to  the  flesh  was  thought  unclean  and  worthy 
of  no  consideration.  Everything  which, 
tends  toward  real  beauty  and  sincerity,  and 


96  Human  Life 

helps  to  make  us  learned,  just,  and  charita- 
ble, must  necessarily  be  worth  striving  for; 
and  the  possession  of  this  should  be  counted 
above  all  other  things.  At  the  same  time, 
we  must  appreciate  the  awfulness  of  our 
responsibility,  and  continually  test  our  ac- 
tions in  the  light  of  their  equity  toward 
others,  if  we  would  be  following  the  safe 
line  of  conduct.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
should  not  be  blind  to  the  evil  in  others, 
and  we  should  be  willing  to  go  to  any  rea- 
sonable self-sacrifice  to  better  terrestrial 
conditions. 

The  philosophy,  as  enunciated  in  the 
foregoing,  is  not  at  all  altruistic;  it  is,  on 
the  contrary,  very  selfish,  and  as  such  it 
has  its  chief  value.  If  we  teach  our  child- 
ren that  they  must  be  good,  not  for  the  sake 
of  doing  the  right  thing,  but  for  the  purpose 
of  increasing  their  happiness,  it  would  seem 
but  reasonable  that  such  incentive  in  the 
latter  case  would  be  more  potent  than  that 
given  in  the  former  one.  Above  all,  the 
idea  of  vicarious  atonement  must  be  ab- 
horred as  a  false  conceit,  and  human  beings 
should  be  taught  that,  in  the  moral  as  in 


The  Purpose  of  Life  97 

the  physical  world,  consequences  are  always 
absolutely  true  to  their  antecedents.  As 
Orlando  J.  Smith  so  forcefully  and  tritely 
says,  "  Know  that  the  consequences  of  your 
every  act  and  thought  are  registered  in- 
stantly in  your  character.  This  day,  this 
hour,  this  moment,  is  your  time  of  judg- 
ment. He  who  deceives,  betrays,  kills — he 
who  entertains  malice,  treachery,  or  other 
vileness,  secretly  in  his  heart — takes  the 
penalty  instantly  in  the  debasement  of  his 
character.  And  so,  also,  for  every  good 
thought  or  act,  be  it  open  or  secret,  he 
shall  receive  an  instant  reward  in  the  im- 
provement of  his  character. 

"  Every  night  as  you  lie  down  to  sleep,  you 
are  a  little  better  or  a  little  worse,  a  little 
richer  or  a  little  poorer,  than  you  were  in 
the  morning.  You  have  nothing  that  is 
substantial,  nothing  that  is  truly  your  own, 
but  your  character.  You  shall  lose  your 
money  and  your  property;  your  home  shall 
be  your  home  no  longer;  the  scenes  which 
know  you  now  shall  know  you  no  more; 
your  flesh  shall  be  food  for  worms;  the 
earth  upon  which  you  tread  shall  be  cinders 


98  Human  Life 

and  cosmic  dust.  Your  character  alone 
shall  stay  with  you,  surviving  all  wreckage, 
decay,  and  death;  your  character  is  you, 
it  shall  be  you  forever.  Your  character  is 
the  perfect  register  of  your  progress  or  of 
your  degradation,  of  your  victory  or  of  your 
defeat ;  it  shall  be  your  glory  or  your  shame, 
your  blessing  or  your  curse,  your  heaven 
or  your  hell." 

Truly  has  Plato  said :  "  Character  is 
man's  destiny."  "Whatsoever  a  man  sow- 
eth,  that  shall  he  also  reap." 


^ 


CHAPTER  V 

KNOWLEDGE  AND  EDUCATION 

IN  entering  upon  the  consideration  of  the 
part  which  knowledge  plays  in  the  making 
of  human  happiness,  it  seems  impossible  to 
secure  a  view  of  satisfactory  breadth.  What 
we,  as  children,  knew  as  recently  estab- 
lished facts  was  with  our  fathers,  in  many 
instances,  entirely  undreamed-of,  so  rapidly 
has  the  fund  of  knowledge  grown  within 
the  last  century.  With  us  now,  more  than 
at  any  other  time,  is  correctness  of  judg- 
ment advantageous,  since,  with  increased 
learning,  has  come  a  fiercer  competition  in 
all  the  affairs  of  life,  and  more  dependent 
than  ever  before  is  the  individual  now,  upon 
his  intelligence  for  his  livelihood,  as  well  as 
for  his  happiness.  In  this  day,  as  never 
previously,  are  the  words  of  Bacon  true: 
"  Crafty  men  contemn  studies ;  simple  men 
admire  them,  and  wise  men  use  them." 

At  the  present  time,  also,  as  at  no  time  in 
the  historic  past,  is  experience  gained  at 

99 


100  Human  Life 

the  hands  of  others  or  through  them;  so 
that  the  youth  of  to-day  does  not  have  to 
suffer  the  consequences  of  getting  experi- 
ence "  first  hand  "  on  account  of  the  lack  of 
books,  or  of  the  prejudice  or  ignorance  of 
his  parents  and  teachers,  as  was  so  often  the 
case  in  the  not  remote  past.  Furthermore, 
intelligent  parents  are  taking  their  children 
into  their  confidence,  and  informing  them 
upon  all  subjects  with  perfect  freedom, 
since,  inasmuch  as  knowledge  must  come 
to  children  at  some  time,  it  is  vastly 
preferable  that  it  should  come  through 
those  who  have  the  interest  of  the  in- 
experienced at  heart,-  so  that  the  proper 
color  and  perspective  may  be  given  to  each 
and  every  fact.  It  is  almost  an  axiom  of 
pedagogics  to-day  that  "ignorance  is  the 
most  potent  cause  of  crime."  With  the  un- 
precedented dissemination  of  knowledge 
which  has  taken  place  during  the  past  few 
decades,  there  has  necessarily  been  a  pro- 
portionate advancement  in  the  culture  of 
the  masses,  and,  with  culture,  comes  refine- 
ment and  conscience. 

The  cheapness  and  attractiveness  of  cur- 


Knowledge  and  Education         101 

rent  literature,  before  the  decline  in  culture 
which  engulfed  this  country  with  the  rise 
of  commercialism  and  imperialism,  was  a 
thing  of  which  America  had  every  reason  to 
be  proud;  and  while  we  are  now  in  the 
trough  of  the  wave  of  progress,  and  will 
continue  to  be  until  money  and  commercial 
influence  lose  their  present  prestige,  yet  it 
does  not  take  an  optimist  to  see  that, 
sooner  or  later,  and  somewhere,  humanity 
will  take  advantage  of  its  hard-won  vic- 
tories of  the  past  and  commence  again  its 
march  toward  better  conditions. 

Here,  again,  as  with  the  individual,  so 
with  the  entire  race.  As  we  outgrow  the 
things  of  our  childhood  at  the  arrival  of 
mature  years,  so  has  and  will  the  human 
family  as  a  whole.  Who  cannot  remember 
the  marvelous  width  and  depth  of  the  vistas 
of  youth,  as  looked  back  at  in  the  trans- 
muting light  of  memory;  and  yet,  when, 
after  years  of  toil,  we  look  at  the  same 
scenes  again  in  reality,  how  disappointing 
and  dwarfed  they  are !  It  is  not  the  actual 
physical  distance  which  has  been  altered, 
but  we,  ourselves.  Our  horizons  have  un- 


102  Human  Life 

consciously  widened  every  day;  our  stand- 
ards of  comparison  have  been  insidiously 
raised.  Just  as  an  inch,  when  compared 
with  aj  foot,  seems  relatively  small,  with 
a  yard,  smaller,  and  so  on  until  we  reach 
the  "  light  year,"  the  value  of  the  fraction  is 
reduced  to  almost  an  inappreciable  sum; 
so,  as  we  progress  through  life,  the  moment- 
ous events  of  our  youth  lose  their  import- 
ance, and  we  look  at  our  past  through  the 
minifying  glass  of  experience,  until  at  last 
we  can  hardly  believe  that  the  person  whose 
life  we  have  been  reviewing  is,  in  reality, 
one  with  our  present  self.  Furthermore, 
events  seen  at  a  distance  assume  their  true 
proportions,  and  we  are  less  influenced  by 
passions  and  prejudices  after  the  lapse  of 
time;  hence  it  is  only  in  retrospection  that 
we  are  able  to  secure  a  view  of  anything 
which  we  have  experienced  without  distor- 
tion. All  normal  human  beings  are  so  con- 
stituted that  their  psychic  activity  runs 
through  a  long  series  of  periods  of  evolu- 
tion during  each  individual  life.  As 
Haeckel  has  shown,  five  of  these,  at  least, 
can  be  clearly  defined: 


Knowledge  and  Education          103 

1st — The  Infantile  Stage — from  birth  to 
the  beginning  of  self-consciousness. 

2nd — The  adolescent  stage — from  self- 
consciousness  to  puberty. 

3rd — The  idealistic  stage — from  puberty 
to  the  period  of  sexual  intercourse. 

4th — The  mature  stage — from  the  time  of 
sexual  intercourse  to  the  beginning  of  de- 
generation with  age. 

5th — The  senile  stage — from  the  com- 
mencement of  degeneration  with  age  until 
death. 

The  investigation  of  a  human  life,  accord- 
ing to  this  outline,  will  prove,  quite  readily, 
the  psychic  possibilities  of  mundane  exist- 
ence. 

As  is  well  known,  the  child  enters  life 
with  its  cerebellum  almost  devoid  of  func- 
tions. The  vital  processes  are  carried  on 
through  the  cerebrum  and  the  medulla 
oblongata,  purely  by  virtue  of  the  stamp 
of  heredity,  and  it  is  only  after  some  days 
that  the  outside  stimuli,  such  as  light,  heat, 
pressure  or  contact,  etc.,  of  the  most  ele- 
mentary and  primitive  sort,  are  responded 
to  by  the  infant.  Its  life  is  a  matter  of  lit- 


104  Human  Life 

tie  or  no  individual  interest  to  it,  and  it  is 
usually  only  after  many  months,  and,  in 
some  cases,  years,  before  the  child  has  any 
conception  of  its  own  existence.  Previous 
to  the  comprehension  of  its  existence,  the 
infant  has  to  learn  to  see  and  judge  some- 
thing of  the  distance  and  size  of  objects 
by  the  use  of  its  eyes,  if  not  to  invert  the 
retina  image.  In  a  non-monistic  sense,  the 
child,  during  this  period,  has  no  soul,  and 
its  life  or  death  is  of  absolutely  no  moment 
to  it. 

In  the  second,  or  adolescent  stage,  the 
most  important  of  the  individual's  concrete 
knowledge  is  obtained — that  upon  which 
the  basis  of  judgment  rests  in  after-years. 
The  developing  mentality  seizes  new  facts 
with  avidity,  and  the  memory  is  more  keen, 
potentially,  at  this  stage  than  at  any  other. 
The  value  of  correct  associations  at  this 
era  cannot  be  over-estimated,  as  ideas  and 
habits  formed  in  this  period  cling  tena- 
ciously to  the  individual.  So  deeply  seated 
do  they  become  that  they  form  a  part  of 
what  we  call,  in  after-years,  our  instinct, 
and  upon  these  memories  and  the  founda- 


Knowledge  and  Education         105 

tion  of  habits  we  build  our  later  intuition. 
Voltaire  has  somewhere  remarked  that 
"  Mankind  is  led  more  by  instinct  than  by 
reason,"  and  his  observation  is  a  just  one. 
The  acquisition  of  concrete  facts  or  knowl- 
edge, in  a  specialized  form,  takes  place  at 
a  very  much  more  rapid  rate  at  this  period 
than  during  any  other  one,  and  the  child's 
mind  is  very  plastic,  and  absorbs  informa- 
tion greedily.  Nature  has  so  arranged  it 
that  at  this  time,  when  most  is  to  be  learned, 
learning  comes  more  easily  than  before  or 
afterwards.  In  the  normal  child,  the  sense 
of  duty  begins  to  make  itself  felt  at  this 
juncture,  and  while  this  may  be  entirely 
an  objective  idea,  nevertheless,  it  clearly 
shows  an  appreciation  of  justice  in  a  regard 
for  the  rights  of  others.  Coupled  with 
this,  there  is  a  satisfaction  which  comes 
both  from  a  sense  of  our  knowledge — little 
though  it  be — and  the  feeling  that  this  is 
being  used  as  a  guide  to  our  conduct;  a 
sentiment  which  Bacon  eloquently  expresses 
in  his  aphorism :  "  No  pleasure  is  compara- 
ble with  the  standing  upon  the  vantage 
ground  of  Truth."  With  this  realization, 


106  Human  Life 

life  for  the  first  time  becomes  worth  living, 
and  our  desire  for  more  knowledge  follows 
directly  upon  our  appreciation  of  the  power 
which  truth  gives  over  our  destiny.  The 
grasping  and  comprehension  of  this  idea  by 
the  child  is  one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the 
most  important,  points  to  be  attained  in 
any  educational  system.  The  absorption  of 
abstract  facts  does  not  constitute,  primar- 
ily, any  part  of  an  education,  as  Spencer 
has  so  clearly  shown;  but  the  implanting 
of  the  desire  for  truth,  and  the  manner  in 
which  we  should  assimilate  and  use  it,  does 
attain  the  highest  aim  of  any  scheme  of 
erudition.  It  is  in  this  second  stage  of 
development  that  this  must  be  done  rudi- 
mentally;  consequently,  compulsory  educa- 
tion must  be  carried  at  least  through  this 
period. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  third  subdivision 
in  the  life  of  the  individual,  we  find  a  pecul- 
iar nervous  tension,  which  is  invariably  an 
accompaniment  of  this  stage  of  physical 
development.  The  imaginative  faculties 
are  enormously  stimulated,  and,  unless 
directed  into  the  right  channels,  are  sure 


Knowledge  and  Education         107 

to  work  to  the  eternal  harm  of  both  male 
and  female  children.  They  should  have 
been  given  a  general  knowledge  of  their 
physical  peculiarities,  previous  to  this  time, 
by  their  parents,  and  should  be  allowed  the 
companionship  of  playmates  of  the  opposite 
sex  so  long  as  their  characters  are  not 
objectionable.  These  close  acquaintances 
between  girls  and  boys  should  be  fostered 
and  allowed  to  become  friendship,  rather 
than  be  discouraged  and  ridiculed,  by  the 
parents  and  guardians,  as  is  so  often  the 
case.  The  polarity  of  sex  will  assert  itself 
at  this  early  age,  and  the  boys  will  strive 
to  appear  manly,  strong  and  noble,  while 
the  girls,  in  a  less  positive  sense,  perhaps, 
but  in  an  equally  beneficial  manner,  will 
attempt  to  assume  the  womanly  peculiar- 
ities of  reserved  kindliness  and  sympathy, 
which  has  made  the  female  character  so 
lovable  and  universally  admired  through 
all  the  ages.  In  this  matter  of  the  inter- 
sexual  association  of  children,  our  public 
school  system  is  usually  in  error,  since,  in 
most  towns,  the  playgrounds  of  the  boys 
and  girls  are  separated  by  high  fences,  and 


108  Human  Life 

communication  is  entirely  cut  off  during 
play  times.  The  association  with  a  large 
number  of  individuals  of  the  opposite  sex 
gives  the  child  a  broader  basis  upon  which 
to  form  a  judgment  concerning  any  one, 
and  if  taught  at  the  same  time  to  use  his 
mind  analytically,  will  mean  a  correspond- 
ingly high  ideal  of  his  own.  The  ideal  of 
the  child  is  but  the  selected  striking  char- 
acteristics of  his  own  acquaintances,  coa- 
lesced into  an  imaginative  being.  This 
ideal  is  high  or  low,  just  as  he  has  been 
taught  to  reverence  and  worship  beautiful 
or  unlovely  and  vile  things;  but,  all  con- 
ditions being  equal,  there  is  no  other  time 
in  life  when  the  human  mind  will  so  readily 
respond  to  the  pure  and  noble  stimulation 
of  sestheticism  as  against  the  baseness  and 
depravity  of  unbridled  sensuality. 

Much  has  been  said  concerning  the  dif- 
ference in  the  systems  of  education  and  the 
class  of  facts  to  be  presented  to  the  male, 
as  distinguished  from  the  female,  mind. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  desired  re- 
sult of  education  in  either  case  is  broadly 
similar — the  fitting  of  the  individual  for  a 


Knowledge  and  Education         109 

useful  and  happy  life.  But  it  does  not  fol- 
low that,  because  in  our  present  civiliza- 
tion, the  woman  is  necessarily  the  guardian 
of  the  aesthetic,  while  the  man  is  engrossed 
with  the  practical,  that  the  same  set  of 
facts  and  power  of  investigation  and  reason 
are  not  just  as  good  a  preparation  with 
which  to  meet  the  identical  world-problems 
in  the  one  life  as  in  the  other.  Truth  is  the 
same  to  the  boy  as  to  the  girl,  and  the 
material  facts  do  not  change  whether  faced 
by  one  sex  or  its  opposite.  Since  in  our 
industrial  life,  we  have  allowed  woman  to 
assume  already  no  mean  part,  we  have  more 
than  ever  a  valid  reason  for  giving  her  the 
same  course  of  training  in  general  which  we 
prescribe  for  her  brother.  Nor  are  we 
speaking  of  intellectual  and  moral  educa- 
tion alone — but  the  physical  as  well — and 
this  in  its  broadest  sense.  If  we  can  but 
stamp  indelibly  upon  the  minds  of  our 
children  that  the  natural  consequences  of 
their  actions  are  the  punishments,  per  se, 
which  they  must  suffer  in  person,  we  have 
done  about  all  possible  toward  making 
their  pathways  through  the  world  lead  at 


110  Human  Life 

least  through  negative  enjoyment,  in  place 
of  absolute  grief.  There  must  be  inculcated 
a  frankness  and  sincerity  into  the  processes 
of  their  mentality,  before  correct  judgment 
can  exist,  and,  without  this,  no  scheme  of 
education  can  fulfill  its  mission.  This  hon- 
esty of  character  or  intro-active  integrity  is 
a  hard  matter  to  instill  into  the  child, 
since  our  methods  and  actions  are  very 
rarely  consistent,  as  Richter,  Rousseau, 
Spencer,  and  others — in  truth,  all  of  our 
great  educational  thinkers — have  so  well 
realized.  The  indispensability  of  this  can- 
dor and  fervor  is  none  the  less  appreciated, 
however,  owing  to  the  almost  insurmount- 
able difficulties  attending  its  procuration. 
It  is  just  in  this  connection  that  intimate 
friendships  with  members  of  both  sexes  so 
nicely  supplement  the  work  accomplished  by 
parental  association,  since  the  restraint  cer- 
tain to  come  from  the  authority  of  the  par- 
ent or  guardian,  is  unknown  as  an  influence 
between  those  'equal  in  age  and  station  in 
life. 

In  the  use  of  the  beginning  of  sexual 
intercourse,  as  a  line  of  demarcation  be- 


Knowledge  and  Education          111 

tween  periods  of  human  existence,  it  would 
seem  that  a  most  natural  and  rational 
selection  were  made.  As  a  proof  of  this, 
it  is  but  necessary  to  call  to  mind  the  large 
number  of  barbaric  and  semi-civilized  peo- 
ples who  observe  some  initiatory  rites  or 
mysteries  connected  with  the  arrival  of  the 
individual  at  puberty  or  nubility,  which 
with  them  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
the  same  as,  if  not  absolutely  identical 
with,  the  beginning  of  sexual  indulgence. 
Under  our  civic  law,  it  is  at  this  time  that, 
through  marriage,  the  human  being  assumes 
his  full  responsibilities,  and,  by  the  begin- 
ning of  an  independent  family  relation,  be- 
comes an  integral,  co-ordinate  member  of 
the  state.  It  is  at  this  "  stress  and  storm  " 
period  that  the  real  work  of  life — the  fru- 
ition of  existence — takes  place.  Beginning 
with  the  intimate  association  with  another 
human  being,  whose  rights  and  privileges 
are  so  interwoven  with  our  own  that  it  is 
frequently  a  hard  matter  to  respect  them 
without  becoming  distant,  tolerating  the 
idiosyncrasies,  and  lauding  the  virtues,  in 
such  a  way  that  the  former  are  diminished. 


112  Human  Life 

while  the  latter  are  increased;  trying  to 
anticipate  the  wants  and  wishes  of  the 
other  so  that  they  may  be  gratified — not 
for  their  own  satisfaction,  primarily,  but 
for  our  own;  seeing  the  pleasures  of  sensu- 
ality transmuted  in  the  crucible  of  pain 
into  the  gold  of  a  new  existence;  feeling 
the  supplementary  affection  and  interest, 
which,  for  the  want  of  a  better  name,  we 
call  parental  love,  and,  as  the  offspring 
grow  older,  the  pride  and  elation  which 
comes  with  their  achievements ;  standing  at 
last  beside  the  grave,  crushed  with  grief, 
raving  like  Macbeth  in  despair,  or  inspired 
with  a  transcendental  insanity  like  Kich- 
ter's — these  all  are  the  vicissitudes  of  ma- 
ture human  life,  when  at  its  best. 

But,  great  and  varied  as  they  are,  we 
find  them,  in  fact,  very  closely  fused  to- 
gether; and  like  all  life-processes,  they 
take  place  at  a  comparatively  slow  rate,  so 
that  before  we  are  aware,  we  have  arrived 
at  the  beginning  of  senile  degeneration. 

Prior  to  the  ending  of  this  fourth  stage, 
the  education  of  the  individual  has  been 
finished,  and  it  depends  largely  upon  the 


Knowledge  and  Education         113 

previous  mode  of  living,  and  the  manner  of 
thinking  whether  he  may  not  remain  at  his 
best  for  a  while,  or  must  at  once  begin  the 
descent,  from  which  there  is  no  return), 
Fortunate,  indeed,  is  he  whose  "star  re- 
mains long  bright  at  the  zenith."  Con- 
sidering now  what  constitutes  an  education 
and  the  best  means  of  obtaining  it,  we  can 
profitably  review  the  principles  involved. 
As  Spencer  has  shown,  intellectual,  moral, 
and  even  physical  development  for  the 
human  being  must  proceed  in  one  direction 
— call  it  what  we  will.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  the  infant,  as  an  individual- 
ity, is  homogeneous  in  its  ignorance  and 
positive  influence ;  that  the  first  facts  which 
dawn  upon  its  germinating  intelligence  are 
concrete  and  empirical,  and  that  all  of  its 
acts  are  simple,  resulting  from  compara- 
tively simple  stimuli.  Education,  in  its 
broadest  sense,  is  the  development,  culti- 
vation, and  direction  of  all  the  natural 
powers  of  man,  and  its  purpose  should  be 
to  fit  the  individual  for  a  useful  and  happy 
life.  Education  can  come  only  through  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge,  but  knowledge 


114  Human  Life 

can  be  obtained  in  two  ways.  By  knowl- 
edge, we  mean  assurance  born  of  convic- 
tion, based  upon  sufficient  evidence,  that  a 
mental  conception  corresponds  with  that 
which  it  represents.  The  primal  way  of 
gaining  knowledge  is  by  experience,  and  un- 
doubtedly this  is  the  most  satisfactory  and 
thorough  in  all  cases,  where  the  result  of 
such  experience  is  not  of  such  a  nature  as 
to  potentially  lessen  the  possibilities  of  the 
individual  for  future  usefulness  and  hap- 
piness. Where  this  would  occur,  or  where, 
for  any  reason,  such  as  lack  of  time  or  op- 
portunity, it  cannot  be  resorted  to,  the  ac- 
curately recorded  experience  of  others  can 
be  assimilated  through  the  memory  and 
reasoning  faculties,  and  added  to  the  store 
of  knowledge  for  the  mind's  use.  In  using 
the  second  method  of  acquiring  knowledge, 
we  should  not  only  exercise  the  utmost  care 
in  selecting  authorities  who  have  a  repu- 
tation for  keenness  of  perception  and  truth- 
fulness of  narration,  but  we  should  not  ac- 
cept their  dictum  for  what  seems  to  be  to 
us  contrary  to  our  previous  experience,  and 
unsound  to  our  reason  and  judgment. 


Knowledge  and  Education         115 

Unless  we  are  able  to  follow  with  our  rea- 
son their  narration  of  the  causes  of  events, 
it  is  of  but  little  avail  that  we  reach  their 
conclusion. 

The  adoption  of  the  scientific  as  distin- 
guished from  the  Aristotelian  system  of 
education  by  the  leading  teachers  of  all  the 
Occidental  countries  within  the  last  cen- 
tury, has  been  of  enormous  benefit  to  the 
human  race.  We  know  now  that  the  first 
thing  to  be  learned  is  to  maintain  the  body 
in  as  nearly  perfect  physical  condition  as 
possible — since  the  mind,  to  a  marked  de- 
gree, reflects  the  pathological  state  of  the 
flesh.  Consequently,  hygiene  becomes  the 
fundamental  science  in  the  education  of  the 
human  being,  and  facts  relating  thereto 
should  take  precedence  generally  over  all 
others  in  the  priority  of  time  in  a  youth's 
education. 

With  the  habit  of  health  once  established, 
the  next  matter  is  to  see  that  those  studies 
which  will  place  the  individual  in  posses- 
sion of  the  greatest  numbers  of  facts  con- 
cerning his  physical  and  mental  environ- 
ments, and  which  will  give  him  the  best 


116  Human  Life 

training  in  observation  and  reasoning,  are 
pursued. 

For  this,  natural  science  and  its  accom- 
panying mathematics,  are  supreme,  al- 
though enough  manual  training  and  domes- 
tic science  should  be  included  in  the  curric- 
ulum to  insure  an  acquaintance  with  the 
matters  of  everyday  life.  Human  physi- 
ology and  anatomy,  as  well  as  the  subject 
of  parenthood,  should  also  have  a  share  of 
attention  commensurate  with  their  import- 
ance— and  this  has  long  been  denied  them. 
Elementary  psychology  must  also  have  a 
place  even  in  that  course  of  education 
which  should  be  made  compulsory  in  every 
State.  A  knowledge  of  the  elementary 
Latin  and  Greek  is  also  to  be  desired  in 
those  countries  whose  vernaculars  are 
largely  made  up  from  word-roots  to  be 
found  in  these  dead  languages. 

As  a  matter  of  amusement  and  erudi- 
tion every  individual  should  have  some 
line  of  work  other  than  that  of  his  daily 
routine,  upon  which  to  devote  his  spare 
time,  regardless  of  the  educational  advan- 
tages which  he  may  have  had  before  assum- 


Knowledge  and  Education         117 

ing  his  responsibilities  in  the  world's  work. 
This  is  equally  true  of  woman.  However, 
this  should  not  be  done  with  the  intention 
of  winning  fame — although  that  is  not  im- 
possible, since  Newton  developed  his  Cal- 
culus in  his  spare  time  after  hours,  while 
working  as  a  clerk  upon  a  very  moderate 
salary — or  attracting  the  attention  of 
others,  but  as  a  means  of  self-development. 
Either  some  particular  unsolved  problem 
may  be  taken  hold  of,  such  as  the  sciences 
of  chemistry,  physics,  or  biology  are  so  re- 
plete with,  or  the  subject  of  literature  and 
belles  lettres  may  be  studied  most  enter- 
tainingly and  profitably.  This  class  of 
workers  were  very  much  more  numerous 
formerly  than  at  present,  owing  to  the  rise 
of  commercialism  recently  over  the  whole 
world,  and  it  is  among  these  that  labor  for 
love,  rather  than  for  profit,  that  much  of 
the  real  accomplishment  occurs.  From  our 
standpoint,  no  plan  of  human  existence  can 
be  complete,  in  the  highest  and  best  sense 
of  the  word,  which  does  not  include  this 
phase  of  life,  nor  can  any  scheme  of  educa- 
tion be  comprehensive  which  does  not  lead 


118  Human  Life 

up  to  it.  There  is  probably  no  natural  law, 
the  knowledge  of  which  is  of  so  much  im- 
portance to  the  human  race  at  large,  as 
that  commonly  known  as  the  law  of  com- 
pensation. How  many  of  the  thinking  vul- 
gar have  for  ages  repeated  the  ancient 
adage :  "  You  cannot  have  your  pie  and  eat 
it."  But  it  has  remained  for  modern  science 
to  demonstrate  how  absolutely  true  this  is, 
and  Emerson  only  partly  stated  his  case  in 
one  of  his  best  essays :  "  Tit  for  tat ;  an  eye 
for  an  eye;  a  tooth  for  a  tooth;  blood  for 
blood;  measure  for  measure,  love  for  love. 
Give  and  it  shall  be  given  to  you.  Nothing 
venture,  nothing  have.  Thou  shalt  be  paid 
exactly  for  what  thou  hast  done,  no  more, 
no  less.  Who  doth  not  work,  shall  not  eat. 
Harm  watch,  harm  catch.  Curses  always 
recoil  on  the  head  of  him  who  imprecates 
them.  If  you  put  a  chain  around  the  neck 
of  a  slave,  the  other  end  fastens  itself 
around  your  own.  Bad  council  confounds 
the  adviser.  'What  will  you  have?7  quoth 
God;  < pay  for  it  and  take  it.? "  It  is  one  of 
the  largest  parts  of  any  education,  yea,  it  is 
the  major,  to  know  that  you  must  pay  for 


Knowledge  and  Education         119 

what  you  get  in  life  whether  you  will  or  no, 
and  that  you  are  forced  constantly  to  bar- 
gain and  barter  what  you  have  for  what 
you  have  not,  and  it  is  imperative  that  you 
see  that  you  get  something  which  you  really 
want,  and  which  will  add  to  your  happi- 
ness. And,  in  spite  of  yourself,  you  will 
get  what  you  really  want,  for  you  can't  help 
it ;  but  for  it  you  will  have  to  pay  out  some- 
thing, as  you  are  doing  all  the  time.  Be 
sure  to  get  something  back  of  value,  let 
your  ideals  be  high,  choose  the  thing  which 
will  give  you  the  most  happiness,  but,  re- 
member, that  you  must  pay  its  price.  It 
is  the  sudden  realization  of  the  law  of  com- 
pensation, held  possibly  to  an  untenable 
extreme,  that  accounts  for  the  recent  rapid 
proselyting  of  the  Christian  Science  cult. 


CHAPTER  VI 

RELIGION  AND  ETHICS 

THOSE  who  have  noticed  little  children 
playing  contentedly  in  the  early  evening, 
when  one  of  their  number  suggested  the 
change  of  amusement  to  the  game  of  bugoo- 
bear,  could  not  have  failed  to  see  the  al- 
most immediate  alteration  in  the  infantile 
mind  from  the  most  happy  placidity  to  the 
most  tense  apprehension.  Although  the 
lights  still  burned  at  their  utmost  brilliancy 
and  the  game  was  entered  into  with  per- 
fect good  faith  by  the  children,  neverthe- 
less it  was  a  matter  of  but  a  short  while 
until  all  were  thoroughly  scared  and  ex- 
pected the  bugoo-bear  to  appear  in  any  dark 
or  shadowed  place.  This  phenomenon  has 
always  seemed  to  be  a  very  close  analogy 
to  just  what  happens  with  grown  persons 
who  are  working  up  a  religious  fervor.  Just 
as  the  darker  the  room  is,  the  more  appre- 
hensive the  children  become,  so  the  deeper 

120 


Religion  and  Ethics  121 

the  ignorance  of  natural  science  is  which 
engulfs  the  mature  human  individuals, 
directly  in  that  proportion  will  be  their 
capacity  for  religious  fanaticism.  32i£J2on^v 
sciousness  of  man  that  he  is  dependent 
upon  some  supernatural  being,  has  been 
and  always  will  be  tbe  only  basis  upon 
which  religious  belief  can  be  postulated.  If 
we  insert  the  idea  of  natural  causes  in  place 
of  the  supernatural  being  in  the  foregoing 
sentence,  then  instead  of  a  religious  belief, 
we  have  the  foundation  for  a  system  of 
ethics^ 

The  dissemination  of  scientific  knowledge 
in  the  last  century  has  done  more  to  break 
down  religious  caste  and  hatred  than  all 
other  influences  combined  previous  to  that 
time.  The  authority  of  age  has  been  appre- 
ciably lessened,  the  significance  of  miracles 
as  certain  proofs  of  divinity  on  the  part  of 
religious  teachers  has  changed,  the  reason- 
ableness or  expediency  of  any  system  of 
vicarious  atonement  as  a  means  of  attain- 
ing either  spiritual  or  moral  "grace,"  and 
the  realization  of  humanity  in  general  that 
the  individual  expiates  his  physical  crimes 


122  Human  Life 

by  bodily  suffering,  and  his  moral  sins  by 
the  tortures  of  a  guilty  conscience,  are  all 
verifications  of  what  has  occurred  in  the 
spiritual  and  moral  world  recently.  The 
enormous  strides  made  in  proselyting  by 
monism  within  the  last  few  decades,  speak 
volumes  upon  this  topic.  The  statement 
has  recently  been  made,  as  the  result  of  an 
ecclesiastical  census  conducted  by  one  of 
the  largest  Christian  denominations,  that 
less  than  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  our  people 
in  this  country  regularly  attend  church 
service.  The  demand  of  the  age  for  demon- 
stration does  not  well  accord  with  the  cre- 
dulity insisted  upon  by  the  powerful  reli- 
gious organizations  of  to-day.  Keligious 
beliefs  are  of  necessity  mere  matters  of 
superstition,  and  are  based  very  largely 
upon  the  tendency  of  the  human  mind  to 
bow  down  before  authority,  particularly,  if 
it  is  insolent,  and  the  power  of  a  falsehood 
to  put  on  the  appearance  of  a  truth,  if  it 
can  but  gain  sufficient  repetition.  "  Credidi 
propter  quod,  locutus  sum."  The  brazen- 
ness  of  this  in  much  of  the  literature  of 
religious  revelation,  particularly  in  the  He- 


Eeligion  and  Ethics  123 

brew,  Christian,  and  Mohammedan  collec- 
tions, is  most  readily  apparent  to  the  most 
cursory  critic.  In  fact,  no  strictly  religious 
literature  at  the  time  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  belief  is  free  from  it. 

It  is  true  of  all  religions  that  into  the 
warp  of  superstition  the  woof  of  a  code  of 
ethics  is  interwoven.  In  the  earlier  stages 
of  culture  it  has  long  been  one  of  the 
accepted  criteria  of  any  faith  whether  its 
accompanying  science  of  duty,  as  developed 
in  it,  was  relatively  good  or  bad.  That 
there  is  a  logical  connection  between  these 
two  elements  no  one  can  doubt,  but  this 
inter-relation  is  more  frequently  accidental 
than  it  is  essential.  Facts  show  that  the 
institutes  and  early  promulgators  of  all  of 
the  great  religions  of  which  we  have  knowl- 
edge, have  seized  with  avidity  upon  any 
moral  stipulations  which  were  necessary 
for  their  locality  or  condition  of  life,  and 
that  if  capital  could  be  made  out  of  these 
peculiar  provincial  circumstances,  they 
were  not  slow  in  coining  them  to  their  ad- 
vantage. An  instance  of  this  will  be  readily 
recognized  in  the  inculcating  within  their 


124  Human  Life 

tenets  such  doctrines  as  the  existence  of  an 
omnipresent  and  omniscient  deity,  whose 
favor  may  be  won  by  supplication,  humil- 
ity, or  sacrifice,  or  that  of  a  personal  im- 
mortality for  each  individual  in  a  pleasur- 
able condition  as  one  of  the  rewards  for 
belief  and  an  endless  existence  of  pain  for 
its  lack.  As  the  number  of  converts  in- 
creased, there  has,  in  almost  every  case, 
grown  up  a  powerful  and  wealthy  sacer- 
dotal class  having  special  privileges.  This 
cult  of  priesthood  is  soon  corrupted  by  idle- 
ness and  luxury,  and  the  great  influence 
which  is  attached  to  it  by  virtue  of  its 
vocation,  has  sooner  or  later  been  largely 
exerted  to  keep  its  parishioners  under  its 
control  by  means  of  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion. No  matter  how  pure  and  sincere  may 
have  been  its  founder,  or  how  elevating  or 
altruistic  its  doctrines  might  be,  practically 
all  religions  have  suffered  from  the  infamy 
and  gross  selfishness  of  their  priesthoods, 
who  by  their  short-sighted  policies  of  oppos- 
ing all  adjustment  of  its  dogma  to  newly- 
discovered  facts,  or  their  advancement 
along  with  contemporary  civilizations,  have 


Keligion  and  Ethics  125 

but  precipitated  their  downfall.  From  one 
to  another  of  the  gods  of  heaven  has  the 
"sceptre  of  power  and  the  purple  of  au- 
thority "  passed  with  advancing  ages,  until 
it  is  no  wonder  that  thinking  people  are 
asking,  "Who  will  next  occupy  the  old 
throne?" 

The  earliest  religion  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge  was  that  prevailing  in  the 
[Valley  of  the  Mle  over  seven,  and  perhaps 
as  long  as  ten,  thousand  years  ago.  The 
origin  of  these  Egyptian  Aborigines  we  do 
not  know — some  have  supposed  that  the}' 
came  from  a  mixture  of  conquering  Ly- 
bians,  with  the  early  dwellers  along  the 
lower  courses  of  the  river.  Time  has  effaced 
all  record  of  any  religious  texts  which  they 
may  have  possessed,  yet  we  can  tell  from 
the  manner  in  which  they  buried  their 
dead,  when  not  dismembered,  with  their 
faces  always  to  the  south,  and  lying 
upon  their  left  side,  while  the  corpse  was 
wrapped  in  the  skins  of  gazelles  or  in  grass 
mats — that  their  ideas  of  a  future  life  were 
tolerably  well-defined.  The  civilization  of 
this  people  was  modified  by  the  arrival  of 


126  Human  Life 

the  conquering  immigrants  who  probably 
came  from  Asia,  either  by  way  of  Arabia  or 
across  the  Red  Sea,  and  who,  in  turn,  en- 
grafted upon  the  religion  of  the  conquered 
certain  tenets  of  their  own,  and  in  this  way 
formed  a  new  system,  the  records  of  which 
we  find  in  "  The  Book  of  the  Dead/'  which 
is  not  only  the  oldest  book  extant,  but  also 
the  most  antiquated  collection  of  sacred 
literature  of  which  we  have  knowledge.  Ex- 
ploration in  Egyptian  burying-grounds 
plainly  shows  that  between  the  time  of  the 
disposition  of  the  dead,  as  first  noted,  and 
the  date  of  the  supremacy  of  the  "  Book  of 
the  Dead,"  that  there  existed  civilizations 
in  this  valley  who  no  longer  buried  their 
dead  whole,  with  crude  attempts  at  embalm- 
ing with  bitumen,  but  who  burned  their 
corpses  more  or  less  completely,  and  threw 
the  remaining  bones  into  a  shallow  pit. 
After  this  came  a  race  who  dismembered 
the  bodies  of  their  dead,  burying  the  hands 
and  feet  in  one  place,  while  the  trunk  and 
the  rest  of  the  arms  and  legs  were  placed 
in  a  grave,  separate  again  from  the  head. 
It  is  impossible,  of  course,  to  even  guess  at 


Keligion  and  Ethics  127 

the  length  of  time  necessary  to  effect  such 
changes  in  the  customs  of  people,  but  we 
do  know  that  at  least  seventy  centuries  ago 
the  ritual  contained  in  the  "Book  of  the 
Dead  "  was  generally  accepted.  And  from 
this  remote  pre-dynastic  time  down  to  the 
seventh  century  after  Christ,  mummifying 
was,  in  some  form  or  other,  continually 
practiced  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile.  At  the 
earliest  time  of  which  we  have  record,  we 
find  the  Egyptians  worshiping  a  number 
of  autochthonic  gods,  of  whom  Osiris  and 
his  sister  Isis  were  the  chief.  Their  ideas 
of  the  deities  were  entirely  anthropomor- 
phic. Osiris  having  lived  and  suffered  death 
and  mutilation,  and  having  been  embalmed, 
was  by  his  sisters,  Isis  and  Nephthys,  pro- 
vided with  a  series  of  charms,  by  which  he 
was  protected  from  all  evil  and  harm  in  the 
future  life,  and  who  had  recited  certain 
magical  formluse  which  had,  in  the  world 
to  come,  given  him  everlasting  life.  It  is 
certain  that  the  practice  of  this  belief 
changed  in  minor  details  many  times  as  the 
semi-barbarous  and  sensual  North  Africans 
were  subjected  to  the  influence  of  their 


128  Human  Life 

more  highly  moral  and  spiritual  Asiatic 
conquerors.  Their  tombs  changed  from 
shallow  pits  to  brick  sepulchres,  and  these 
were  in  turn  replaced,  by  those  who  could 
afford  it,  by  pyramids — the  most  substan- 
tial form  of  human  architecture  left  by  his- 
toric races.  As  showing  the  height  of  the 
civilization  reached  by  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians, it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  great 
Pyramid  of  Cheops  is  not  only  the  most 
gigantic  tomb  ever  built,  but  that  it  was  de- 
signed to  serve  also  as  an  astronomical  ob- 
servatory, and  that  its  Orientation  for  this 
purpose  is  very  accurate,  when  we  consider 
that  the  Egyptians  had  no  transits  or  other 
instruments  such  as  we  have  now.  Con- 
sequently, in  the  location  of  this  work,  they 
were  forced  to  either  use  the  shadow  or 
polar  method,  and  the  latter  being  the  most 
accurate  was,  in  fact,  selected  by  them.  Had 
they  known  anything  of  the  refraction  of 
light  as  it  passes  from  space  into  our  at- 
mosphere, and  been  able  to  make  the  cor- 
rection for  horizontal  parallax,  their  loca- 
tion would  have  been  accurate.  The  pur- 
poses of  their  astronomical  observations, 


Keligion  and  Ethics  129 

as  made  from  this  pyramid,  were  astrolog- 
ical undoubtedly,  as  the  completion  of  the 
tomb  shut  off  the  galleries  which  had  been 
so  carefully  located. 

According  to  the  "Book  of  the  Dead," 
the  human  economy  was  composed  of  nine 
different  integral  parts,  all  of  which,  except 
the  "  ren  "  or  name,  are  comprised  broadly 
within  our  idea  of  body  and  soul.  The 
judgment  of  each  individual  took  place  af- 
ter death,  before  the  tribunal  of  Osiris,  and 
in  his  Hall  of  Judgment.  Here  the  soul, 
stripped  of  all  chance  of  deceit  or  subter- 
fuge, was  forced  to  make,  as  his  address  to 
Osiris,  the  justly  famous  "Negative  Con- 
fession," and  the  truth  being  apparent  to 
Osiris  and  his  forty-two  associates,  judg- 
ment was  given  impartially  and  upon  an  ab- 
solute basis  of  fact.  The  standard  of  ethics 
demanded  of  the  individual  can  be  realized' 
from  the  fragments  quoted  from  this  ad- 
dress : — "  In  truth  I  have  come  to  thee  and 
I  have  brought  right  and  truth  to  thee,  and 
I  have  destroyed  wickedness  for  thee.  I 
have  not  brought  forward  my  name  for  ex- 
altation to  honors.  I  have  had  no  associa- 


130  Human  Life 

tion  with  worthless  men.  I  have  not  ut- 
tered evil  words  against  any  man.  I  have 
not  stirred  up  strife.  I  have  not  judged 
hastily.  I  have  not  made  haughty  my  voice, 
nor  behaved  with  insolence.  I  have  not  ill- 
treated  servants.  I  have  not  caused  harm 
to  be  done  to  the  servant  by  his  master.  I 
have  not  made  to  be  the  first  consideration 
of  each  day  that  excessive  labor  should  be 
performed  for  me.  I  have  not  oppressed 
the  members  of  my  family.  I  have  not  de- 
frauded the  oppressed  one  of  his  property. 
I  have  neither  filched  away  land,  nor  have 
I  encroached  upon  the  fields  of  others.  I 
have  not  diminished  from  the  bushel,  nor 
have  I  misread  the  pointer  of  the  scales  nor 
added  to  the  weights.  I  have  not  carried 
away  the  milk  from  the  mouths  of  chil- 
dren. I  have  caused  no  man  to  suffer  hun- 
ger. I  have  made  no  one  to  weep.  I  have 
not  acted  deceitfully.  I  have  not  uttered 
falsehood.  I  have  not  wrought  evil  in  the 
place  of  right  and  truth.  I  have  not  com- 
mitted theft.  I  have  not  done  violence  to 
any  man.  I  have  done  no  murder.  I  have 
ordered  no  murder  done  for  me.  I  have 


Keligion  and  EtMcs  131 

not  caused  pain.  I  have  not  done  iniquity. 
I  have  not  defiled  the  wife  of  any  man.  I 
have  not  committed  fornication,  nor  have 
I  lain  with  any  man.  I  have  not  done  evil 
to  mankind.  I  have  not  committed  any  sin 
against  purity.  I  am  pure.  I  am  pure.  I 
am  pure."  Those  who  were  condemned  be- 
fore this  tribunal  were  instantly  devoured 
by  the  "  Eater  of  the  Dead,"  while  the  good 
were  admitted  into  the  realm  of  Osiris  to 
enjoy  everlasting  happiness  and  life. 

We  turn  now  from  the  Valley  of  the  Nile 
to  that  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  lying 
about  one  thousand  miles  eastward.  Here 
we  find  the  home  of  the  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian empires,  and  interwoven  with  their 
religion  we  find  many  of  the  old  myths 
which,  in  a  corrupted  form,  occur  in  our 
own  Bible.  As  the  papyri  of  Egypt  have 
been  forced  to  give  up  their  secrets,  so  have 
the  clay  cylinders  of  Mesopotamia.  These, 
now  lying  in  the  British  and  Berlin  Mu- 
seums, tell  in  a  purer  and  more  primitive 
form  than  that  found  in  the  Old  Testament, 
the  story  of  the  fall  of  man,  and  upon  an 
old  cylinder  seal  we  have  it  illustrated,  ap- 


132  Human  Life 

pie  tree,  woman,  serpent,  and  all.  The  story 
of  the  deluge  is  also  there  taken  from  the 
library  of  Sardanapalus  at  Nineveh,  just 
as  it  was  written  upon  the  cylinder  more 
than  two  thousand  years  before  Christ.  All 
that  is  required  to  duplicate  this  deluge  as 
far  as  the  valley  of  Mesopotamia  is  con- 
cerned, is  a  tremendous  downpour  of  water, 
coincident  with  a  tornado  blowing  up  the 
Persian  Gulf,  just  as  some  thirty  years  ago, 
in  the  delta  of  the  Ganges,  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  million  persons  perished  during  a  like 
phenomenon  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  Here 
also  we  find  the  creation  myth,  and  how 
after  a  terrible  struggle  with  the  engulfing 
waters,  Marduk  finally  cut  them  in  twain, 
and  out  of  one-half  made  the  roof  of  heaven, 
while  out  of  the  other  half  he  made  the 
earth.  Then,  too,  out  of  mingled  clay  and 
celestial  blood,  he  made  the  first  two  human 
beings,  man  and  woman.  The  Babylonians 
and  Assyrians  believed  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  dependent,  of  course,  upon  the 
mode  in  which  it  lived  here.  Thus,  we  find 
the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  commandments 
just  as  we  have  them  in  the  Pentateuch,  to- 


Keligion  and  Ethics  133 

gether  with  injunctions  of  humanity,  char- 
ity, mercy,  and  love  on  the  part  of  the  fol- 
lower of  Babel.  Speaking  the  truth  and 
keeping  one's  word,  as  well  as  freedom  from 
deceit,  are  also  commanded,  and  infringe- 
ments of  these  were  regarded  as  sins  pun- 
ishable by  human  afflictions  and  ailments 
of  all  sorts,  including  death.  Their  idea 
of  heaven  was  fairly  well-developed,  very 
greatly  in  excess  of  that  of  the  Hebrews. 
Their  heaven  was  a  place  of  delight  and 
ease,  while  Sheol  was  a  place  full  of  thirst 
and  discomfort.  It  is  also  interesting  to 
know  that  the  Jews  got  their  ideas  of  an- 
gels from  the  Babylonians,  with  whom,  as 
far  as  we  know,  this  idea  was  original,  in- 
asmuch as  we  find  no  mention  of  them  in 
the  Egyptian  religious  system. 

Considering  now  the  civilization  which 
existed  in  the  valleys  of  Mesopotamia  from 
five  to  six  thousand  years  ago,  the  first 
thing  which  arrests  our  attention  is  their 
knowledge  of  astronomy.  In  place  of  the 
Egyptian  pyramid,  with  its  sides  Oriented 
toward  the  cardinal  points,  we  find  the  zig- 
gurat  pointing  the  angles  instead.  This  one 


134  Human  Life 

fact  shows  that  Chaldea  did  not  borrow 
from  Egypt,  but  developed  her  science  in- 
dependently of  her  western  neighbor.  The 
planets  were  all  known  and  named,  eclipses 
were  foretold  with  accuracy,  and  to  Ac- 
cadia  we  owe  not  only  our  observance  of 
Sunday,  but  our  angular  duodecimal  scale. 
What  length  of  time  must  have  been  re- 
quired to  admit  of  such  a  highly-developed 
civilization  as  this,  with  such  advanced  re- 
ligious and  ethical  ideas,  is  beyond  the 
faintest  conjecture.  Far  more  remote  than 
that  time,  however,  were  the  first  settle- 
ments on  the  alluvial  plains  by  the  rude 
aborigines  of  the  highlands. 

On  the  plateau  of  Iran,  in  Central  Asia, 
we  find  the  location  of  the  oldest  known  hab- 
itation of  the  Aryan  race.  Here,  in  the  ear- 
liest twilight  of  our  history,  we  find  tribes 
of  human  beings  who  possessed  well-devel- 
oped religious  and  ethical  ideas,  and  whose 
descendants,  moving  toward  the  southeast 
and  into  the  valleys  of  the  Himalayas,  for- 
mulated the  hymns  which,  when  compiled, 
constitute  the  Vedas  or  the  sacred  litera-. 
ture  of  the  Aryan  Indians,  while  the  por- 


Religion  and  Ethics  135 

tion  who  remained  behind,  became  the  pro- 
genitors of  the  Aryan  Iranians  whose  re- 
ligious lore  we  find  in  that  wonderful  col- 
lection known  as  the  Avesta.  In  these  two 
literatures,  both  of  which  are  worthy  of 
the  deepest  investigation  and  maturest  de- 
liberation, we  have,  so  far  as  is  known,  the 
oldest  idea  of  a  non-anthropomorphic 
deity.  His  attributes  with  the  Indian  were 
so  subdivided  and  abstracted  as  to  allow 
this  one  god  essence  to  almost  fill  a  panthe- 
non.  Their  worship  took  the  form  of  adora- 
tion for  the  striking  grandeurs  of  nature, 
each  of  whom  they  regarded  as  a  separate 
personal  consciousness  possessed  of  super- 
human powers.  Their  religion  seems  to  the 
superficial  investigator  to  be  but  an  ex- 
ceptionally pure  form  of  pantheism,  but 
this  is  not,  in  fact,  the  case,  since  philolo- 
gists to-day  recognize  that  the  overwhelm- 
ing spontaneous  impulse  which  forces  the 
barbaric  human  mentality  to  give  utterance 
to  its  deepest  emotions,  is  a  certain  index 
of  a  crude  monotheistic  conception.  It  is 
Brahma  who  is  the  universal  self -existent 
soul,  and  who  comprises,  in  his  infinity, 


136  Human  Life 

both  the  god  and  the  adorer.  Of  course,  as 
time  went  on,  these  ideas  became  more 
gross,  until,  with  the  introduction  of  caste, 
the  ancient  Vedic  religion  had  lost  much  of 
its  beauty  and  purity.  The  religious  sys- 
tem had  become  both  dogmatic  and  preten- 
tious, and  particularly  insolent  in  its  au- 
thority with  the  rise  in  power  of  the  sacer- 
dotal class,  the  Brahmans.  While  the  Vedic 
religion  is  imbued  with  a  spirit  of  strong 
belief  in  the  efficacy  of  sacrifice  and  prayer, 
we  find  that  this  steadily  increases  in  domi- 
nation as  we  approach  modern  times.  To 
all,  except  the  Sudras  or  Serfs,  a  course  of 
life  conduct  is  prescribed  consisting  of  four 
stages,  viz.:  as  a  religious  student,  as  a 
householder,  as  an  anchorite,  and  last,  as 
a  religious  mendicant.  Corresponding  to 
these,  there  were  four  sacred  debts,  viz.: 
that  due  to  the  gods  and  paid  by  worship; 
that  due  to  the  ancient  sages  and  discharged 
by  Vedic  study;  that  which  he  owes  to  his 
manes,  and  which  he  relieves  himself  of  by 
the  perpetuation  of  his  name  in  a  son ;  and 
last,  that  which  he  owes  to  mankind,  and 
Which  demands  his  incessantly  practicing 


Beligion  and  Ethics  137 

kindness  and  hospitality.  They  believed  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  through 
metempsychosis,  in  its  reward  or  punish- 
ment, according  to  its  existence  here. 

In  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  there 
lived  in  India  a  member  of  the  Brahman 
class  who  was  destined  to  more  than  re- 
store Brahmanism  to  its  pristine  purity. 
Gautama  Buddha  was  born  as  the  son  of  a 
local  ruler  and  his  wife,  whose  conception 
was  accomplished  by  her  falling  into  a 
trance  and  dreaming  that  the  future 
Buddha  had  become  a  superb  white  ele- 
phant, who,  walking  around  her  and  strik- 
ing her  upon  the  right  side  with  a  lotus 
flower,  entered  her  womb.  Such  is  the 
Hindoo  myth.  This  reformer  altogether 
denied  the  existence  of  the  soul,  as  an  en- 
tity or  substance  possessing  immortality  in 
the  individual  sense,  and  he  taught  that  the 
soul's  future  happiness  in  the  abstract  was 
entirely  dependent  upon  its  performance 
while  here,  as  distinguished  from  any  recol- 
lection or  effect  of  its  previous  existences. 
He  denied  the  authority  of  the  Veda  and 
the  efficacy  of  prayer — in  fact,  his  creed  is 


138  Human  Life 

best  shown  by  a  quotation  from  his  gospel : 
"Bituals  have  no  efficacy,  prayers  are  but 
vain  repetitions,  and  incantations  have  no 
saving  power.  But  to  abandon  covetous- 
ness  and  lust,  to  become  free  from  all  -evil 
passions,  and  to  give  up  all  hatred  and  ill- 
will  ;  that  is  the  right  sacrifice  and  the  true 
worship."  This  is  the  kernel  of  the  pure 
Buddhistic  belief,  and  this  declaration  at 
once  reduces  his  system  from  a  religious  to 
a  purely  ethical  one.  Excepting  the  myth 
of  his  conception,  his  life  was  a  perfectly 
natural  one.  Nothing  could  be  more  real 
than  his  discovery  of  sorrow  and  misery, 
and  his  inquiry  after  its  cause ;  nothing  can 
be  more  touching  than  his  parting  from 
his  wife  and  son,  whom  he  loved  so  much 
that  he  could  not  hazard  the  pleasure  of  a 
last  farewell.  And  under  the  stress  of  this 
situation,  we  are  particularly  told  that  he 
was  human  enough  to  give  way  to  tears. 
No  ethics  could  be  higher  in  the  aggregate 
than  his — not  once,  but  time  and  again, 
does  he  speak  thus:  "Indulge  in  lust  but 
little,  and  lust,  like  a  child,  will  grow. 
Charity  is  rich  in  returns;  charity  is  the 


Eeligion  and  Ethics  139 

greatest  wealth,  for  though  it  scatters,  it 
brings  no  repentance.  Better  than  sover- 
eignty over  the  earth,  better  than  living  in 
heaven,  better  than  lordship  over  all  the 
worlds,  is  the  fruit  of  holiness.  For  seek- 
ing true  religion,  there  is  never  a  time  that 
can  be  inopportune.  The  present  reaps 
what  the  past  has  sown,  and  the  future  is 
the  product  of  the  present.  Far  better  is 
it  to  revere  the  truth  than  try  to  appease 
the  gods  by  the  shedding  of  blood.  What 
love  can  a  man  possess  who  believes  that 
the  destruction  of  life  will  atone  for  evil 
deeds?  Can  a  new  wrong  expiate  old 
wrongs?  And  can  the  slaughter  of  an  in- 
nocent victim  take  away  the  sins  of  man- 
kind? This  is  practicing  religion  by  the 
neglect  of  moral  conduct.  The  sensual  man 
is  the  slave  of  his  passions,  and  pleasure- 
seeking  is  degrading  and  vulgar.  But  to 
satisfy  the  necessities  of  life  is  not  evil.  To 
keep  the  body  in  good  health  is  a  duty,  for 
otherwise  we  shall  not  be  able  to  trim  the 
lamp  of  wisdom,  and  keep  our  mind  strong 
and  clear.  There  is  no  savior  in  the  world 
except  in  truth ;  there  is  no  immortality  ex- 


140  Human  Life 

cept  in  truth.  The  truth  is  best  as  it  is, 
have  faith  in  the  truth  and  live  it.  Not  by 
birth  does  one  become  an  outcast;  not  by 
birth  does  one  become  a  Brahman ;  by  deeds 
one  becomes  an  outcast  and  by  deeds  one 
becomes  a  Brahman."  What  could  more 
strongly  emphasize  the  position  of  Buddha 
in  regard  to  the  infamy  of  the  caste  sys- 
tem, as  it  has  been  developed  in  India,  than 
the  parable  of  the  low-caste  girl  at  the  well 
who  had  been  asked  by  the  disciple  Ananda 
for  a  drink.  This  girl,  seeing  that  he  was 
a  Brahman,  or  member  of  the  highest  caste, 
replied  that  she  could  not  give  him  even  a 
drink  of  water  without  contaminating  his 
holiness.  To  this,  Ananda  promptly  re- 
plied :  "  I  ask  not  for  caste,  but  for  water." 
And  when  she  came  to  Buddha  with  her 
heart  full  of  gratitude  and  love  for  Ananda, 
he  spoke  to  her  in  the  following  language: 
"  Verily,  there  is  great  merit  in  the  generos- 
ity of  a  king  when  he  is  kind  to  a  slave, 
but  there  is  greater  merit  in  the  slave  when, 
ignoring  the  wrongs  which  he  suffers,  he 
cherishes  kindness  and  good-will  to  all 
mankind.  He  will  cease  to  hate  his  op- 


Religion  and  Ethics  141 

pressors,  and  even  when  powerless  to  resist 
their  usurpation  will,  with  compassion,  pity 
their  arrogance  and  supercilious  demeanor. 
Blessed  are  thou,  Prakrita,  for  although 
you  are  of  low  caste,  you  will  be  a  model 
for  noblemen  and  noblewomen.  You  are 
of  low  caste,  but  Brahmans  will  learn  a 
lesson  from  you.  Swerve  not  from  the  path 
of  justice  and  righteousness,  and  you  will 
outshine  the  royal  glory  of  queens." 

Very  little  wonder  is  it  that,  from  North 
Hindustan,  the  doctrines  of  Buddha  soon 
largely  prevailed  over  Central,  Southern, 
and  Eastern  Asia.  Of  the  almost  number- 
less sects  into  which  Buddhism  is  divided, 
all  go  back  for  their  inspiration  to  his 
teachings.  In  fact,  he  left  little  for  his  dis- 
ciples to  do  in  the  matter  of  enunciating  a 
pure  and  virtuous  system  of  ethics,  so  thor- 
oughly did  he  cover  the  ground  himself. 
When  we  remember  that  Confucius  was  liv- 
ing in  China  at  almost  the  identical  time 
that  Buddha  was  preaching  in  Hindustan, 
we  cannot  help  but  wonder  at  the  strange- 
ness of  the  occurrence — both  enunciating  a 
philosophy  or  system  of  ethics  which  was 


142  Human  Life 

destined  to  affect  the  conduct  of  so  large  a 
portion  of  the  human  race.  As  we  read 
Lao-Tse's  injunction  to  "requite  hatred 
with  goodness,"  it  seems  that  he  must  have 
drawn  his  inspiration  from  an  Indian 
source. 

We  return  now  to  the  location  in  Central 
Asia,  and  to  the  remote  antiquity  from 
which  we  digressed.  At  the  same  time  the 
Indians  in  the  southeast  have  been  develop- 
ing their  religion,  the  Iranians  have  not  re- 
mained quiescent.  Their  great  sage,  Zara- 
thustra,  or  Zoroaster,  had  been  teaching  his 
dualism — in  many  respects  the  most  sub- 
tle religious  philosophy  ever  promulgated. 
From  what  little  of  the  Zend  lore  that  has 
escaped  the  ravages  of  time,  we  are  able  to- 
day to  trace  the  outlines  of  a  religion  and 
philosophy  based  upon  primal  polarities. 
Ahura  is  to  Zoroaster  the  great  Life-Spirit- 
Lord,  the  Great  Creator,  the  Great  Wise 
One.  His  six  characteristics  are  the  fun- 
damental laws  of  a  righteous  universe ;  sim- 
ple, clear,  and  pure.  Ahura  creates  the 
world  during  six  periods:  in  the  first, 
heaven;  in  the  second,  water;  in  the  third, 


Religion  and  Ethics  143 

earth;  in  the  fourth,  plants;  in  the  fifth, 
animals ;  and  in  the  sixth,  man.  All  of  the 
human  race  is  descended  from  a  primitive 
pair.  There  is  a  deluge,  and  one  man  is 
selected  to  save  and  protect  representatives 
of  each  species  so  that  the  earth  may  be  re- 
peopled  with  a  better  race.  Zoroaster  ques- 
tions Ahura  on  the  Mount  of  Holy  Con- 
versations, and  receives  from  him  answers. 
So  far,  the  parallel  between  Zoroastrianism 
and  Judaism  is  complete.  The  difference 
now  appears,  for  the  former  held  that  the 
world  was  to  last  four  periods — during  the 
first  two,  Ahura  has  complete  authority. 
Then  comes  Ahriman,  the  self-existent  evil- 
principle,  and  their  conflict  fills  the  third 
period.  The  fourth  period,  which  opens 
with  the  advent  of  Zoroaster,  ends  with  the 
downfall  of  Ahriman,  and  the  resurrection 
of  the  soul  for  a  future  life.  It  is  entirely 
within  the  power  of  the  individual  as  to 
whether  he  wishes  to  come  under  the  power 
of  the  Good  or  Evil  Spirit,  and  with  whom 
he  chooses  to  ally  himself.  But  the  struggle 
is  incessant,  and  watchfulness  must  always 
be  maintained.  So  much  for  the  religion — 


144  Human  Life 

now  for  the  ethics.  To  the  Zoroastrian,  the 
natural  and  normal  in  life  is  not  derided 
and  scorned,  nor  is  woman  looked  upon  as 
"a  necessary  evil,"  as  is  the  case  in  Bud- 
dhism, Christianity,  and  Mohammedanism. 
Here  is  a  quotation  from  the  Zend  A  vesta 
from  the  mouth  of  Ahura  himself:  "  Verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  the  man  who  has  a  wife  is 
far  above  him  who  lives  in  continence;  he 
who  keeps  a  house  is  far  above  him  who 
has  none;  he  who  has  children  is  far  above 
him  who  is  childless;  he  who  has  riches  is 
far  above  him  who  has  none."  If  we  can 
use  the  moral  code  of  the  only  remaining 
Zoroastrians  in  the  world  to-day,  the  Par- 
sees,  as  a  criterion  to  judge  by,  we  must  ac- 
knowledge that  no  religion  enjoys  a  purer 
and  more  perfect  course  of  conduct.  Dr. 
Haug  tells  us  that  the  following  are  strictly 
denounced  by  its  code:  Murder,  infanticide, 
poisoning,  adultery  on  the  part  of  men  as 
well  as  of  women,  sorcery,  sodomy,  cheat- 
ing in  weight  and  measure,  breach  of  prom- 
ise, regardless  of  to  whom  made,  deception 
of  any  kind,  false  covenants,  slander  and 
calumny,  perjury,  dishonest  appropriation 


Beligion  and  Ethics  145 

of  wealth,  taking  bribes,  keeping  back  the 
wages  of  laborers,  misappropriation  of  re- 
ligious property,  removal  of  a  boundary 
ston-e,  turning  people  out  of  their  property, 
maladministration  and  defrauding,  apos- 
tasy, heresy,  and  rebellion.  Besides  these, 
there  are  a  number  of  special  precepts  re- 
lating to  the  enforcement  of  sanitary  regu- 
lations, kindness  to  animals,  hospitality  to 
strangers,  respect  to  superiors,  and  help  to 
the  poor  and  needy.  The  following  are 
especially  condemned — abandoning  the  hus- 
band, not  acknowledging  the  children  on 
the  part  of  the  father,  cruelty  toward  sub- 
jects on  the  part  of  a  ruler,  avarice,  lazi- 
ness, illiberality,  egotism,  and  envy.  Here 
we  find  a  system  of  religion  whose  pre- 
dominating symbolism  was  the  worship  of 
fire  as  the  nearest  human  concept  of  Ahura, 
and  well  it  might  be,  for  those  primitive 
people  who  had  so  sacredly  to  cherish  it. 
In  the  Greek  mythology,  Prometheus  was 
inconceivably  tortured  for  filching  from 
heaven  the  divine  fire  and  carrying  it  to 
mortals.  But  according  to  the  Zoroastrian 
philosophy,  Ahura  has  placed  all  good 


146  Human  Life 

within  the  reach  of  man,  and  it  is  for  him 
to. choose  whether  he  will  avail  himself  of 
this  or  become  a  slave  of  Ahriman.  It 
seems  strange  that  from  Bactria,  either 
from  the  old  Mazdaism  or  through  Zoro- 
aster, the  world  should  have  conceived  its 
only  monotheistic  conception  reasonably 
free  from  anthropomorphism,  and  whose 
associated  code  of  ethics  was  so  reasonable, 
firm  and  pure.  There  is  in  Zoroastrianism 
no  thought  of  dogmatic  bigotry  any  more 
than  there  is  in  ancient  Buddhism,  and  its 
philosophy  of  primitive  polarity  well  cor- 
responds with  what  modern  science  has 
taught  us  within  the  last  five  decades.  Both 
of  these  systems  are  meditative  rather  than 
militant,  and,  consequently,  have  not  exer- 
cised the  influence  over  the  destiny  of  the 
human  race  which  Judaism  has. 

In  the  consideration  of  the  Jewish  re- 
ligion and  its  descendants,  Christianity 
and  Mohammedanism,  we  are  face  to  face 
with  the  most  warlike  and  combative  mono- 
theism which  history  has  recorded.  In  the 
earlier  form,  and  as  in  the  Hebrew  worship 
of  to-day,  Jehovah  shares  his  authority  with 


Religion  and  Ethics  147 

no  one — in  the  Christian  system,  God  and 
Christ  are  equally  powerful,  while  with  Is- 
lam it  would  seem  that  Mahomet  had 
slightly  the  balance  of  power,  notwith- 
standing the  oft-repeated  declaration  that 
"  there  is  no  God  but  Allah."  Here  we  have 
the  idea  of  a  chosen  people  of  God  carried 
to  its  logical  conclusion;  the  jealousy  of 
Jehovah  being  in  no  wise  an  efficient  opera- 
tive cause  for  the  terrible  butcheries  of 
men,  women,'  and  children,  such  as  we  have 
described  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  having 
befallen  the  enemies  of  the  Hebrews  when 
they  were  victorious.  This  wild  and  fanati- 
cal worship  of  a  suspicious  and  revengeful 
God,  although  it  called  for  the  waging  of 
countless  wars  upon  his  supposed  orders, 
and  even  for  the  immolation  upon  the  sac- 
rificial altar  of  one's  own  children;  yet  it 
did  not  promise,  until  the  rise  of  the  Phari- 
sees into  potent  influence;  the  pleasure  of 
a  personal  immortality  for  his  followers,  or 
the  punishment  by  endless  torture  for  his 
non-adherents.  The  effect  of  the  selfish 
idea  of  God-ownership  we  see  inherited  by 
Christianity  with'  the  ancient  heredity 


148  Human  Life 

qualification  changed  to  one  of  faith.  There 
can  be  no  question  that  the  historical 
Christ  was,  perhaps,  next  to  Buddha,  the 
greatest  religious  reformer  whom  the  world 
has  known,  if  we  accept  as  a  criterion  the 
number  of  individuals  affected,  and  the  na- 
ture of  their  work.  As  the  enunciator  of  a 
system  of  ethics,  it  is  impossible  to  see  how 
the  Jew  could  be  regarded  as  the  equal  of 
the  Indian;  although  no  estimate  of  Christ 
can  be  consistently  formed  from  the  St. 
James  version  of  the  Bible,  owing  to  the 
many  and  important  interpolations  of  re- 
cent church  enthusiasts.  The  plan  of  vicar- 
ious atonement  is  one  of  the  most  immoral 
doctrines  of  which  the  world  has  a  record, 
and  the  contempt  for  woman  which  the 
Hebrew  shows  is  not  equalled  by  Buddha, 
although  he,  too,  was  filled  with  that  east- 
ern asceticism  which  looked  with  disdain 
upon  intersexual  affection.  The  narrow- 
ness and  bigotry  which  can  regard  an  omni- 
present and  omniscient  deity  as  working 
for  the  benefit  of  but  a  few  followers  as 
against  the  great  proportion  of  human  be- 
ings who  have  passed  through  an  earthly 


Keligion  and  Ethics  149 

existence  entirely  in  ignorance  of  Him,  and 
who,  on  account  of  this,  have  to  suffer 
eternal  torture,  has  been  responsible  for  no 
less  than  ten  million  murders  in  the  name 
of  Christ  alone,  to  say  nothing  of  the  num- 
berless victims  of  war  and  famine  who  have 
perished  as  a  result  of  the  insatiable  thirst 
of  Jehovah,  Christ,  and  Mahomet  for 
more  influence  in  terrestrial  affairs  and  an 
augmentation  of  adherents.  The  code  of 
ethics  prescribed  by  the  Jewish  regime  was 
good — far  in  advance  of  that  of  the  greater 
portion  of  their  neighbors.  But  Egypt  and 
Chaldea  both  played  a  very  important  part 
in  this  matter,  as  we  must  remember  that 
Hebrew  chronology  only  places  the  creation 
some  four  thousand  years  ago,  and  we  now 
know  that  at  least  three  and  perhaps  five 
thousand  years  previous  to  the  possession 
of  the  Garden  of  Eden  by  Adam  and  Eve, 
the  Valley  of  the  Nile  was  teeming  with  a 
well-developed  civilization.  Christianity  in 
the  Egyptian  City  of  the  Greeks,  through 
Philo,  became  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  Zoroaster,  and  the  aid  thus  derived  has 
been  of  incalculable  value  to  it.  The  religion 


150  Human  Life 

of  Islam  remains  much  as  Mahomet  left 
it,  and  it  has  been,  and  now  is,  well  suited 
for  much  of  the  territory  over  which  it  has 
dominion.  While  its  code  of  ethics  is  rea- 
sonably high,  its  conceptions  are  usually 
grossly  sensual,  and,  unfortunately,  since 
shortly  after  the  death  of  its  founder,  the 
institution  of  the  church  and  the  political 
organization  of  the  various  countries  where 
it  prevails,  have  both  been  under  the  same 
head,  and  are  both,  consequently,  full  of 
corruption. 

Before  taking  up  the  possibility  of  a  re- 
ligious conception  based  upon  the  best 
knowledge  we  have,  there  is  an  interesting 
point  to  be  considered.  Between  the  two 
dates  of  650  B.  C.,  and  650  A.  D.,  we  have 
the  work  of  Buddha,  Confucius,  Mencius, 
Christ,  Philo,  and  Mahomet,  as  well  as  a 
score  ot  lesser  lights ;  in  fact,  all  the  great 
religious  reformers  who  have  been  instru- 
mental in  shaping  the  beliefs  of  the  major- 
ity of  mankind  since  their  time.  And, 
stranger  still,  that  since  Mahomet,  the 
world  has  seen  no  reformer  who  could  wrest 
a  following  of  any  note  from  the  established 


Religion  and  Ethics  151 

religions,  although  now,  with  modern  facili- 
ties for  publication,  it  would  seem  to  be  a 
much  easier  task  than  formerly.  And  so 
it  would  be,  were  it  not  for  the  dissemina- 
tion of  knowledge,  and  the  influence  of  the 
scientific  system  which  has  come  about  dur- 
ing the  last  century,  so  that  now  there  is 
not  that  fanaticism  prevalent  concerning 
religious  matters  which  was  so  rife  at  al- 
most all  stages  of  the  world's  history  until 
recently.  More  and  more  are  people  be- 
ginning to  realize  the  truth  which  Pope  so 
well  expressed  in  his  Alexandrine : 

"  For  modes  of  faith,  let  graceless  zealots  fight, 
His  can't  be  wrong,  whose  life  is  in  the  right." 

About  1850  A.  D.,  there  began  to  be  felt 
among  scientific  men  a  possibility  that  per- 
haps all  of  the  natural  phenomena  of  which 
we  have  knowledge  are  so  inter-related  that 
all  of  our  observations  are  but  different 
views  of  a  few  fundamental  primary  laws. 
These  so-called  laws  or  statements  of  facts 
in  their  natural  order  of  sequence  were  al- 
ways, and  under  all  conditions,  operative 
in  natural  affairs,  had  been  quite  thor- 


152  Human  Life 

oughly  understood  since  Humboldt's  time. 
But  it  remained  for  Herbert  Spencer  in 
England,  and  Ernest  Haeckel  in  Germany, 
to  correlate  the  vast  quantity  of  facts 
gained  from  experiment  and  observation 
along  the  various  lines  of  scientific  re- 
search. Particularly  has  the  latter  been  a 
most  potent  factor  in  formulating  the  new 
and  necessarily  predominating  theology 
of  the  future — a  system  of  belief  which  is 
in  accordance  with  everything  which  the  in- 
dividual knows,  and  which  is  always  ready 
to  accept  a  new  fact  upon  demonstration, 
although  its  reception  may  revolutionize 
even  its  fundamental  concepts.  This  doc- 
trine, which  has  been  most  aptly  termed 
"monism,"  stands  squarely  upon  its  basis 
of  "empirical  investigation  of  facts,  and 
the  rational  study  of  their  efficient  causes." 
In  place  of  worshiping  the  trinities  of  the 
old  superstitions,  it  holds  for  reverence  the 
"good,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful"  wher- 
ever found,  and  in  antithesis  to  the  sacred- 
ness  of  Sabbath  and  the  church,  it  holds 
that  for  the  contemplation  of  the  objects 
of  its  trinity,  "  all  seasons  to  be  summer  and 


Religion  and  Ethics  153 

all  climates  June."  While  denying  the  ex- 
istence of  a  God  outside  of  Nature,  the  free- 
dom of  the  human  will  and  the  possibility 
of  an  immortality  for  the  individual  human 
soul,  as  usually  understood,  it  does  insist 
upon  the  sequence  of  effect  upon  cause,  and 
shows  that  here,  in  this  earthly  existence, 
we  are  forced  to  be  virtuous  if  we  would  be 
happy,  and  that  although  we  are  not  com- 
pletely masters  of  our  fates,  yet  it  funda- 
mentally lies  with  us,  in  the  vast  majority 
of  cases,  to  so  conduct  our  lives  that  either 
misery  or  happiness  will  result  therefrom. 
Monistic  'ethics  differ  from  those  of  any 
religious  system,  from  the  fact  that  the  good 
of  all  is  selected  and  digested  into  a  code 
which  looks  toward  the  "greatest  good  to 
the  greatest  number."  In  doing  this,  in- 
dividual effort  is  lauded  and  not  proscribed, 
and  altruism  and  egotism  are  developed 
with  equal  emphasis.  The  pleasures  of  this 
life  are  not  forfeited  to  gain  delectation  in 
another,  nor  is  the  "illitative  sense"  con- 
sidered a  safe  guide  for  conduct.  Woman  is 
not  looked  upon  as  fundamentally  "un- 
clean," nor  is  she  denied  any  right  or 


154  Human  Life 

privilege  which  man  enjoys.  The  righteous- 
ness of  intersexual  love  and  association  is 
maintained,  when  in  operation  within  a 
proper  constraint,  and  the  family  is  not 
only  the  social  and  political  unit,  but  the 
religious  as  well.  Love  is  held  to  be  more 
potent  than  hate,  and  justice  more  bene- 
ficial than  charity.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  either  the  forgiveness  or  remission  of 
sins — the  responsibility  of  our  actions  is 
ours,  and  ours  alone,  and  can  be  assumed 
by  no  other.  The  result  is  the  same  whether 
our  acts  come  through  ignorance  or  inten- 
tion— it  is  for  the  individual  to  know  before 
doing. 

In  the  foregoing,  a  very  brief  outline  of 
the  progress  which  humanity  has  made  in 
historic  times  in  religion  and  ethics  has 
been  attempted,  and,  if  an  interest  has  been 
aroused  in  this  subject,  its  purpose  will 
have  been  fulfilled.  No  matter  what  creed 
we  hold,  we  cannot  afford  to  be  bigoted,  as 
simple  investigation  will  show  that  in  many 
ways  we  are  but  little  in  advance  of  our 
progenitors  of  seven  thousand  years  ago. 
Only  in  the  matter  that  we  have  a  scien- 


Religion  and  Ethics  155 

tific  basis  to  work  upon,  and  a  vast  accumu- 
lation of  observed  facts,  have  we  any  rea- 
son for  pride.  And  this  has  been  gained, 
at  almost  all  times,  against  every  obstacle 
which  the  church,  as  established  at  the  mo- 
ment, could  bring  into  potency. 


CHAPTEE   iVII 
LOVE 

WITHOUT  doubt,  the  greatest  source  of 
happiness,  as  known  to  human  beings,  is 
love.  Scott  voiced  the  sentiment  of  all  ra- 
tional and  normal  persons  when  he  said: 

"Love  rules  the  court,  the  camp,  the  grove, 
And  men  below  and  saints  above, 
For  love  is  Heaven,  and  Heaven  is  love." 

It  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  we  cannot  en- 
joy anything  to  the  fullest  extent  alone, 
since  our  nature  is  so  constituted  that  we 
must  have  company  in  our  pleasures,  that 
friends  are  indispensable.  Cicero  realized 
this  over  two  thousand  years  ago  when  he 
said  that,  "  The  fruit  of  talent,  and  worth, 
and  every  excellence,  is  gathered  most  fully 
when  it  is  bestowed  upon  every  one  most 
nearly  connected  with  us."  Appreciating 
this,  nature  has  given  us  the  love  and 
friendship  of  parents  in  our  childhood;  of 

156 


Love  157 

the  companions  of  our  youth  as  we  grow 
older;  of  our  life-partner  at  a  later  period, 
and  last,  the  love  of  our  children  and  grand- 
children, so  that,  by  an  interest  in  their 
lives,  we  may  become  ourselves  rejuvenated. 
In  this,  as  in  everything  else  of  a  physical 
or  mental  character,  we  start  at  the  bottom, 
and,  by  a  crescendo  movement,  reach  the 
acme  of  the  condition  which  with  age  di- 
minishes, but  in  this  instance  the  quality 
does  not  deteriorate.  Our  likelihood  of  form- 
ing acquaintances  and  friends  in  later  years 
is  very  much  less  than  in  youth,  and,  cer- 
tainly, with  our  habits  and  idiosyncrasies 
established,  as  they  are  after  middle  age, 
the  possibility  of  forming  intimate  friend- 
ships is  very  much  decreased.  In  childhood 
and  youth,  we  are  more  imaginative  and 
less  practical,  and,  consequently,  our  in- 
clinations in  the  line  of  friendships  will  be 
more  natural  and  less,  influenced  by  consid- 
erations alien  to  friendship  itself.  Nothing 
can  be  more  true  than  the  axiom  of  Cicero, 
"  Friendship  does  not  follow  upon  advant- 
age, but  advantage  upon  friendship." 
Clearly  demonstrated  as  this  is,  but  few 


158  Human  Life 

people  seem  to  realize  it.  For  the  funda- 
mental truth  at  the  bottom  of  this  matter 
is,  as  he  further  states,  "  the  basis  of  that 
steadfastness  and  constancy  which  we  seek 
in  friendship  is  sincerity.  For  nothing  is 
enduring  which  is  insincere." 

Of  all  virtues,  sincerity  is  the  greatest, 
yet,  broadly  speaking,  how  extremely  rare! 
There  is  almost  no  trouble  and  pains  which 
people  will  not  take  to  make  the  world 
think  that  they  are  something  other  than 
they  really  are,  when  but  a  fraction  of  the 
cost  might  make  them  what  they  are  trying 
to  seem  to  be.  The  reciprocal  relation  of 
friendship  demands  sincerity,  just  in  pro- 
portion as  it  becomes  intimate,  and  this  ap- 
plies to  all  friendships,  of  whatsoever  char- 
acter. 

The  love  of  children  is  perhaps  the  great- 
est of  all  affections  in  the  aggregate,  be- 
cause experience  has  not  taught  them  to 
doubt  and  impugn  the  motives  of  others, 
since  everything  to  them  is  just  what  it 
superficially  appears  to  be.  Our  most  vio- 
lent heartaches  come  through  dissimulation 
toward  others,  and  nothing  tends  to  make 
so  callous  and  blunt  our  finer  sensibilities 


Love  159 

as  this.  But  just  in  proportion  as  we  are 
sincere,  must  we  be  careful  as  to  who 
arouses  an  interest  of  more  than  passing 
moment  within  us,  as  after  affection  is  once 
started  and  nurtured  into  luxuriance,  it  is 
not  within  our  power  to  control  it.  While 
love,  when  reciprocated,  can  afford  an  ec- 
stasy and  happiness,  otherwise  unknown,  it 
can,  also,  when  not  returned  by  the  object 
of  our  affection,  become  the  most  potent 
cause  of  superlative  pain  and  anguish.  The 
expression  of  this  truth  by  the  greatest  of 
all  English  poets,  would,  in  itself,  make 
his  name  forever  immortal  had  he  never 
written  another  line,  and  constitutes  not 
only  the  soundest  philosophy,  but  the  most 
sublime  of  all  sentiments  evolved  from  the 
human  mind: 

"  Love  is  not  love 

That  alters  when  it  alteration  finds, 
Or  bends  with  the  remover  to  remove. 
Oh  no!     It  is  an  ever-fixed  mark 
That  looks  on  tempests,  and  is  never  shaken; 
It  is  the  star  to  every  wandering  bark 
Whose  worth's  unknown,  altho'  his  height  is  taken. 
Love's  not  Time's  fool;  though  rosy  lips  and  cheeks 
Within  his  bending  sickle's  compass  come. 
Love  alters  not  with  his  brief  hours  and  weeks, 
But  bears  it  out  e'en  to  the  edge  of  doom." 


160  Human  Life 

If  all  the  race  thoroughly  understood  the 
truth  of  these  words,  how  much  more  hap- 
piness there  would  be  in  the  world!  It  is 
our  trifling  with  our  affections,  or  the  reck- 
less manner  in  which  we  bestow  them  upon 
others,  which  causes  us  our  deepest  sor- 
rows. In  childhood,  with  ordinarily  kind 
parents,  we  have  such  experiences  as  afford 
us  pleasant  memories  throughout  life,  sim- 
ply because  we  lived  in  accordance  with  na- 
ture's law,  which  she  makes  easy  for  us  at 
this  age  to  follow,  when  we  have  no  exper- 
ience or  reason  by  which  we  may  be  guided; 
but  as  we  grow  older,  we  form  those  habits 
of  dissimulation  which  lead  us  into  all  sorts 
of  trouble;  simply  because  we  can  do  cer- 
tain things  without  our  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances becoming  cognizant  of  our  ac- 
tions, we  are  foolish  enough  to  think  that 
no  harm  can  be  done.  If  we  would  use  our 
intelligence  at  all,  we  would  see  at  once, 
that  while  it  may  be  possible  to  deceive 
others  in  the  matter  of  our  thoughts  and 
actions,  we  cannot  delude  ourselves.  We 
would  also  realize  that  our  actions  and  our 
thoughts  are  efficient  causes  in  the  mak- 


Love  161 

ing  of  our  own  characters.  We  would  fur- 
ther see  that  in  order  to  get  any  real  en- 
joyment out  of  a  friendship,  of  even  the 
most  Platonic  kind,  we  must  be  able  to 
play  our  part  sincerely;  in  other  words, 
we  must  be  all  that  we  attempt  to  make  our 
friends  think  we  are.  The  old  proverb 
which  tells  us  that  we  should  go  courting 
in  our  old  clothes,  is  true  in  the  largest 
sense  in  which  we  can  apply  it. 

When  we  consider  how  much  we  are  de- 
pendent upon  our  after-affections  and  their 
outcome  for  our  happiness,  we  see  that 
Coleridge  resorted  to  no  hyperbole  when 
he  wrote: 

"  All  thoughts,  all  passions,  all  delights, 
Whatever  stirs  this  mortal  frame, 
Are  but  the  ministers  of  Love 
And  feed  his  sacred  flame." 

Nor  did  he  overestimate  the  bearing 
which  each  and  every  act  of  our  life  has 
upon  our  ability  to  either  love  or  to  be 
loved,  since  it  is  only  when  we  are  capable 
of  returning  affection  as  pure  and  unsul- 
lied as  is  given  us,  that  we  achieve  the  acme 


162  Human  Life 

of  delight.  It  is  on  account  of  the  neces- 
sity of  the  possession  of  these  qualities 
which  we  have  found  to  constitute  the  only 
possible  basis  for  really  lasting  love,  that 
we  are  so  much  interested  in  those  of  great 
affection.  Emerson  truly  said  that  "all 
mankind  loves  a  lover,"  and  equally  valid 
is  his  observation  that  "  Love  is  not  for 
levity,  but  for  the  total  worth  of  man."  It 
is  the  affection  of  any  human  being  which 
constitutes  his  life  and  his  friendships,  both 
as  living  and  when  coming  into  his  com- 
panionship, and  when  dead,  as  forming  the 
memories  upon  which  the  imagination  will 
fondly  dwell,  and  that  bring  into  his  life 
whatever  real  satisfaction  he  may  have.  As 
a  means  of  aesthetic  development,  nothing  is 
of  higher  value  than  the  affections,  and,  as 
a  stimulant  for  action  along  this  line,  they 
are  without  an  equal.  We  have  only  to  re- 
member the  story  of  Damon  and  Pythias,  to 
see  that  the  ancients  fully  realized  the 
power  of  affection;  or  to  read  what  Plato 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  Phcedrus,  when  he 
has  him  say,  "  Love  will  make  men  dare  to 


Love  163 

die  for  their  beloved,  and  women  as  well  as 
men." 

What  we  have  noted,  heretofore,  refers 
to  all  affections.  Now  we  come  to  the  cul- 
mination of  all  affairs  of  friendship, — that 
relationship  which  is  known  as  marriage. 
Upon  the  immensity  of  the  importance  of 
this  ceremony  have  almost  all  of  the  relig- 
ious ideas  of  man  been  built,  and  in  many 
cases,  if  not  in  all,  to  the  utter  profanation 
of  the  thing  itself. 

In  the  old  tribal  civilization  which  pre- 
vailed, the  idea  of  marriage  was  ill-defined, 
and  it  was  only  as  the  desire  for  the  owner- 
ship of  children  grew  that  moral  ideas  in 
this  relation  became  at  all  definite.  The 
fact  that  men  wished  to  leave  to  their  chil- 
dren property  and  chattels,  which  they 
might  not  have  the  opportunity  of  dispos- 
ing of  satisfactorily  before  their  death, 
brought  about  a  desire  for  marriage  upon 
the  monogamous  and  monandrous  basis; 
and  the  fact  that  man  was  the  owner  of  the 
property,  and  that  the  wife,  until  recently, 
had  no  inherent  right  therein,  made  the 


164  Human  Life 

matter  of  the  ownership  of  the  children  of 
primal  importance,  so  that  the  wishes  of 
the  father  in  regard  to  the  inheritance 
might  be  fulfilled.  It  was  on  account  of  the 
supremacy  of  man  in  his  own  home  that 
the  family  became  the  unit  upon  which  the 
State  is  built,  just  as  the  male  individual 
was  the  unit  upon  which  the  family  was 
built,  and  citizenship  was  primarily  evolved 
and  applicable  only  to  the  male  portion  of 
the  population,  inasmuch  as  they  were  nec- 
essary to  the  State  both  as  tax-payers  and 
as  warriors.  This  idea  of  the  ownership  of 
children  enforced  upon  woman  the  moral 
code  under  which  she  lives  in  Occidental 
countries  to-day ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  and 
for  the  reasons  above  stated,  kept  man  im- 
mune from  it. 

The  significance  attached  to  the  sexual 
desire  in  this  relationship  is  and  has  been 
greatly  overestimated,  to  the  greatest  dis- 
advantage of  mankind  at  large.  The  most 
distinguishing  feature  about  connubial  af- 
fection as  compared  with  Platonic  friend- 
ship, is  that  in  matrimony  there  is  the 
added  unification  of  the  parties  thereto, 


Love  165 

owing  to  the  community  of  interest  between 
them.  Their  individualities  are  merged 
into  one  another;  their  development  must 
be  along  similar  or  parallel  lines,  Kichter 
has  given  us  a  good  account  of  what  a  man 
should  select  in  the  character  of  his  wife 
"to  whom  he  may  be  able  to  give  readings 
concerning  the  more  essential  principles  of 
psychology  and  astronomy  without  her 
bringing  up  the  subject  of  his  stockings  in 
the  middle  of  his  loftiest  and  fullest  flights 
of  enthusiasm;  yet  he  will  be  well  content 
should  one  possessed  of  moderate  excellen- 
cies fall  to  his  lot — one  who  shall  be  capable 
of  accompanying  him,  side  by  side,  in  his 
flights  so  far  as  they  extend — whose  eyes 
and  heart  may  be  able  to  take  in  the  bloom- 
ing earth  and  the  shining  heavens,  in  great, 
grand  masses  at  a  time,  and  not  in  mere  in- 
finitesimal particles;  one  for  whom  this 
universe  may  be  something  higher  than  a 
nursery  or  ball-room,  and  one  who,  with 
feelings  delicate  and  tender,  both  pious  and 
wide,  will  be  continually  making  her  hus- 
band better  and  holier."  Since  the  time  of 
Jean  Paul  Richter,  woman  has  been  allowed 


166  Human  Life 

educational  advantages  more  nearly  equal 
to  those  of  her  brothers  than  heretofore; 
and,  as  a  consequence,  in  many  instances 
and  quite  often,  do  we  find  the  lady  not 
only  the  better  but  the  larger  half  of  the 
home,  intellectually. 

As  Geoffrey  Mortimer  has  well  shown, 
love  among  cultured  people  is  largely  de- 
pendent upon  the  imagination.  In  savages 
and  in  the  human  race,  primarily,  when  at 
this  period  of  their  existence,  it  took  the 
form  of  hedonism,  or  even  the  more  gross 
sex-worship,  and  it  was  not  until  mankind 
was  removed  far  from  the  brute  that  his 
imagination  developed,  and  his  mind  was 
capable  of  abstract  thought,  that  his  aes- 
thetic nature  began  to  develop.  As  his  in- 
tellect became  more  profound,  and  his  men- 
tal range  wider,  his  power  of  abstract 
thinking  was  accordingly  augmented,  until 
to-day,  with  the  average  human  being,  love 
is  only,  in  a  restricted  sense,  dependent 
upon  physical  gratification.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer has  given  a  very  sure  test  of  love,  based 
upon  its  dependence  upon  the  imaginative 
faculty.  According  to  him,  when  we  are 


Love  167 

absent  from  the  one  we  love,  the  mental 
picture  which  we  form  of  her,  and  the  at- 
tributes which  we  at  that  time  give  her,  are 
all  found  in  her  when  in  her  actual  pres- 
ence. Then,  we  are  really  in  love  with  the 
person  whose  faults  we  cannot  see.  The 
truth  of  the  old  adage,  "  Absence  makes  the 
heart  grow  fonder,"  still  further  shows  the 
part  which  the  imagination  plays  in  love. 
There  is  no  human  being  who  has  been  so 
fortunate  as  to  marry  the  first  object  upon 
which  his  affections  settled,  providing,  of 
course,  that  his  previous  life  has  been  spent 
so  that  he  can  enter  into  this  relationship 
equitably,  who  did  not  find  that  if  his  love 
was  reciprocated,  life  possessed  a  trans- 
cendent charm  which  words  cannot  express. 
Such  an  affection  is  necessarily  based  upon 
a  most  profound  respect,  and  can  only  con- 
tinue when  this  deferential  regard  exists. 
While  feeling  a  security  in  its  sense  of  own- 
ership of  the  one  loved,  yet  it  asks  and  de- 
mands nothing,  and  can  only  bud,  blossom, 
and  ripen  into  its  fullness  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  kindness  and  absolute  liberty. 
While  sensual  gratification,  in  the  earlier 


168  Human  Life 

stages,  has  been  the  means  of  nature  in  per- 
petuating the  species,  it  is  also  the  most 
powerful  factor  in  the  evolution  of  that 
community  of  interest  which  is  the  very 
soul  of  this  attachment.  The  infinite  num- 
ber of  little  incidents  which  are  never  to 
be  forgotten  by  any  real  lover,  are  all  of  a 
purely  physical  nature,  but,  in  the  aggre- 
gate, they  form  the  nucleus  of  that  "  amaze- 
ment of  love  and  friendship  and  intimacy  " 
which  is  like  the  melodious  harmony  of  the 
sweetest  sounds,  which  lead  us  into  an  ec- 
stasy in  every  way  supersensual.  It  is  in 
the  realization  of  such  delight  that  Gay 
remarks,  "  Not  to  know  love,  is  not  to  live." 
We  can  best  understand  the  real  potency 
of  sensual  gratification  in  love,  if  we  con- 
sider that  those  moments  which  are  the 
subject  of  our  most  pleasant  memories,  are 
not  those  in  which  our  desires  were  grati- 
fied, but  those  in  which  we  ourselves  prac- 
ticed the  most  ascetic  self-denial.  Well  has 
Schlegel  expressed  this  sentiment  when  he 
says,  in  his  essay  upon  the  Limits  of  the 
Beautiful : — "  Those  who  yield  their  souls 
captive  to  the  brief  intoxication  of  (sens- 


Love  169 

ual)  love,  if  no  higher  and  holier  feeling 
mingle  with  and  consecrate  their  dreams  of 
bliss,  will  shrink  tremblingly  from  the 
pangs  which  attend  their  awakening."  But 
nature  has  here  so  arranged  her  course,  that 
after  marriage,  our  children's,  or,  in  their 
absence,  our  lovers'  affairs,  become  a  part 
and  parcel  of  our  lives,  and  thus,  what  be- 
gan as  selfish  interest,  from  the  pleasure 
which  we  obtain  from  the  presence  of  our 
loved  one,  is  transmuted  into  altruism  of  the 
highest  type.  To  those  who  love,  there  is 
nothing  of  the  spirit  of  boasting  in  the 
.words  of  "Valentine,"  when  he  says: 

"She  is  mine  own, 
And  I  as  rich  in  having  such  a  jewel 
As  twenty  seas,  if  all  their  sands  were  pearls, 
The  water  nectar,  and  the  rocks  pure  gold  " ; 

but  rather  of  a  pious  appreciation  of  the 
being  who  has  brought  him  such  great  hap- 
piness. There  is  something  unaccountable 
about  this  passion  called  love,  and  anyone 
who  has  experienced  it  does  not  wonder  at 
the  words  of  Madame  de  Stael,  "Love  is 
the  emblem  of  eternity ;  it  confounds  all  no- 


170  Human  Life 

tions  of  time,  effaces  all  memory  of  a  be- 
ginning, all  fear  of  an  end." 

In  speaking  of  the  happiness  which  is  to 
be  attained  by  means  of  love,  we  should  not 
fail  to  note  the  fact  that  in  order  to  secure 
the  most  enjoyment  from  it,  we  must  be 
able  to  satisfy  the  conditions  for  which 
such  a  close  and  reciprocal  relationship 
calls.  It  is  here  that  the  philosophy  of  liv- 
ing, based  upon  self-  interest,  is  by  far  the 
safest  guide  of  conduct  known,  since  once 
the  fact  that  we  must  be  able  to  give  to  the 
ones  whom  we  love  all  that  we  ask  of  them 
is  instilled  in  our  minds,  we  will  have  a 
most  powerful  stimulant  to  virtuous  living. 
And  in  this  matter,  there  is  no  chance  for 
misunderstanding.  If  we  would  get  all  the 
happiness  out  of  love,  we  must  go  into  it 
according  to  the  old  injunction  given  to 
clients  who  were  both  about  to  try  their 
case  before  a  court  in  equity:  "You  must 
enter  with  clean  hands."  It  is  strange,  that 
even  in  the  affairs  of  a  Platonic  friendship, 
a  citizen  of  morally  rotten  Rome  at  the  time 
of  the  decadence  of  the  consulate,  should 
realize  that  "  Nothing  is  more  amiable  than 


Love  171 

virtue ;  nothing  which  more  strongly  allures 
us  to  love  it,"  and  yet,  two  thousand  years 
later,  so  few  people  are  practicing  this 
truth,  and  many,  who,  in  their  ignorance, 
will  utterly  deny  it.  This  has  largely  come 
about  from  the  fact  that,  in  times  past, 
man  has  been  able  to  mold  the  opinions 
of  his  sisters,  and,  consequently,  virtue  was 
not  demanded  from  him.  But  if  we  will 
teach  our  children  that  it  is  essential  to 
their  happiness  that  they  should  be  virtu- 
ous, so  that  they  may  enter  into  an  affair 
d'amour  with  equity,  and  obtain  from  it 
the  happiness  which  it  only  can  bring,  we 
would  sweep  from  their  paths,  with  one 
stroke,  the  temptations  of  licentiousness 
which  are  to-day  proving  to  be  the  ruin  of 
the  majority  of  the  young  men  of  this 
country.  We  should  teach  our  boys  that 
they  must  be  able  to  give  to  their  wives 
a  mind  and  body  as  unpolluted  by  debauch- 
ery as  they  expect  and  insist  upon  receiv- 
ing, and  that  unless  they  are  able  to  do 
this,  the  pleasures  of  love,  as  it  affects  the 
marriage  relationship,  are  forever  beyond 
their  power  to  experience.  We  should 


172  Human  Life 

teach  our  girls  that  they  should  demand, 
from  the  man  who  asks  for  their  hand,  as 
clean  and  as  spotless  a  past  as  they  are 
able  to  give  him,  and  that,  unless  they  in- 
sist upon  this,  matrimony  will  not  turn 
out  to  be  the  "grand,  sweet  song"  which 
they  have  been  told  about,  but  will  be  more 
like  an  "armed  truce."  Connubial  love  is 
of  such  a  nature  that  it  will  not  find  hap- 
piness in  the  contemplation  of  the  possi- 
bility of  a  rival,  and  of  all  of  the  exacting 
passions  with  which  humanity  has  to  deal, 
undoubtedly  this  of  love  is  the  strongest. 
The  old  saying  that  "  familiarity  breeds 
contempt,"  is  based  upon  this  fact — that 
unless  we  are  able  to  maintain,  in  the  one 
we  love,  the  esteem  for  us,  which  under  a 
smaller  knowledge  of  our  individuality,  we 
have  excited,  the  sentiment  of  attraction 
soon  turns  to  one  of  repulsion  even  more 
potent  than  its  opposite,  and  even  as  great 
a  source  of  misery  as  is  the  repulsion  of 
hatred;  not  even  being  secondary  when 
compared  with  jealousy,  which  "  mocks  the 
meat  it  feeds  upon."  What  possibility  of 
happiness  is  there  in  marriage  where  there 


Love  173 

is  constantly  running  through  the  mind  a 
comparison  of  the  partner  which  you  have, 
and  a  possibility  of  what  you  have  given 
up?  How  much  happiness  is  possible 
when  you  are  always  comparing  yourself 
with  some  rival,  and  wondering  what  your 
lover  sees  in  him  which  you  do  not  possess? 
It  is  the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of 
monogamy  and  monandry,  that  only  under 
this  condition  can  the  marriage  relation- 
ship be  equitably  fulfilled,  even  more  potent 
than  the  necessity  of  parental  guidance  in 
directing  the  development  of  the  growing 
mind. 

Man  is,  by  nature,  socially  inclined,  and 
it  is  only  in  the  society  of  his  fellow-men 
that  he  really  matures  intellectually  and 
morally.  Under  the  influence  of  love,  in 
the  most  intimate  association  with  a  lim- 
ited number  of  others,  preferably  of  his 
own  kin,  who  will  reprove  his  faults  gently 
and  reasonably  laud  his  courage  and 
achievements — he  finds  the  perfect  element 
for  inspiration  and  development.  Holmes 
has  expressed  this  sentiment  beautifully  in 
his  lines: 


174  Human  Life 

"Soft  as  the  breath  of  a  maiden's  'yes'; 
Not  the  light  gossamer  stirs  with  less; 
But  never  a  cable  holds  so  fast 
Through  all  the  battles  of  wave  and  blast." 

The  enthusiasm  which  comes  from  the 
struggle  of  maintaining  a  home  for  your 
loved  ones,  where  privacy  and  comfort  may 
be  found;  a  retreat  from  the  cares  and 
trifling  annoyances  of  the  work-a-day 
world,  makes  the  place  of  abode  a  shrine 
where  all  of  our  interests  are  centered. 
Most  truly  has  Longfellow  said : 

"Each  man's  chimney  is  his  golden  milestone; 
Is  the  central  point  from  which  he  measures 
Every  distance,  through  the  gateways  of  the  world 
around  him." 

Without  having  experienced  a  real  and 
genuine  affection,  no  man  can  realize  the 
highest  possibility.  Edwin  Markhain  has 
most  truly  said  that  the  love  adventure  is 
the  episode  of  every  human  life,  and,  with- 
out it,  no  existence  is  complete.  There  is 
no  other  earthly  possession  with  which  it 
can  be  compared;  consequently,  we  cannot 
be  too  careful  in  seeing  that  our  lives 


Love  175 

conform  to  the  necessary  demands  of  the 
nature  of  this  passion.  The  effect  of  love 
upon  human  ethics  cannot  be  doubted.  The 
finest  faculty  which  we  have  is  that  by 
means  of  which  we  are  able  to  judge  right 
from  wrong,  and  is  what  we  call  conscience. 
With  this  truth  in  mind,  we  have  only  to 
remember  a  portion  of  an  incomplete  son- 
net of  Shakespeare's,  saying,  "Conscience 
is  born  of  love." 

In  this  observation,  as  in  many  of  his 
others,  the  bard  of  Avon  has  reached  the 
heart  of  the  matter  at  once.  Without  love, 
we  would  have,  and  could  have,  no  con- 
science, as  we  are  only  considerate  of  others 
when  we  have  much  at  stake  ourselves,  and 
wish  this  consideration  for  reciprocal  rea- 
sons. Had  we  no  affection,  we  would  have 
but  little  incentive  to  moral  discrimina- 
tion. In  this  sense,  as  well  as  for  its  happy 
memories, 

"It  is  better  to  have  loved  and  lost 
Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all.' 

In  considering  the  advantages  of  real 
love,  it  is  also  important  that  the  disadvant- 


176  Human  Life 

ages  of  its  counterfeits  should  be  made 
clear.  In  the  first  place,  many  of  the  noted 
teachers  during  the  last  decade  have  called" 
attention  to  the  frightful  reduction  in  our 
marriage  and  birth  rates;  and  this,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  we  feel  that  we 
are  progressing  upward  in  the  scale  of  civ- 
ilization. Now,  while  many  of  our  polit- 
ical economists  believe  that  the  increased 
cost  of  living  has  been  largely  responsible 
for  this,  it  seems  that  we  should  not,  how- 
ever, attach  too  great  importance  to  the 
claim.  There  has  been  a  growing  of  the 
moral  sense  among  women  of  the  Western 
nations,  and  particularly  in  America,  dur- 
ing the  last  few  years,  which  has  tremen- 
dously influenced  the  foundations  of  our 
civilization.  The  Women's  Christian  Tem- 
perance movement,  under  the  guiding  hand 
of  Miss  Willard,  not  only  advocated  the 
prohibition  of  the  sale  of  alcoholic  stimu- 
lants, but  also  became  a  tremendous  power 
in  the  social  purity  crusade,  which  began 
to  sweep  over  this  country  some  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  The  agitation,  which  re- 
sulted from  this  reform  movement,  devel- 


Love  177 

oped  facts  which  were  previously  unknown 
to  the  general  public,  and  in  every  way 
caused  people  to  begin  to  think  about  sub- 
jects which  had  previously  never  been 
brought  to  their  attention  in  a  specific  way. 
When  the  statistics  were  published  that, 
in  this  country  of  eighty  million  people, 
we  were  having  one  divorce  for  every 
twelve  marriages,  and  that  every  year 
showed  a  decrease  in  the  marriage  and 
birth  rate,  thinking  people  of  all  classes 
began  to  seek  to  find  the  cause  for  such 
facts. 

It  would  S'eem  that  one  of  the  primal 
causes  for  the  decrease  in  the  marriage  rate 
is  the  ease  with  which  vice  has  been  al- 
lowed to  become  organized  in  this  country 
into  a  regular  system,  which  is  conducted 
upon  a  basis  of  cold-blooded  business  calcu- 
lation. The  fact  that  we  have  between  six 
hundred  thousand  and  three-quarters  of  a 
million  of  prostitutes  in  America,  and  that 
this  class  of  people  is  being  recruited  at 
the  rate  of  over  fifteen  thousand  per  annum 
from  foreign  countries  and  about  seventy- 
five  thousand  per  annum  from  our  own 


ITS  Human  Life 

country,  is  certainly  highly  significant. 
Furthermore,  the  fact  that  probably  three- 
quarters  of  the  women  in  America  who 
marry  are  forced  to  undergo  major  opera- 
tions within  the  first  five  years  of  their 
married  life,  on  account  of  the  moral  de- 
linquency of  their  husbands,  has  certainly 
not  given  any  impetus  to  marriage  in  our 
own  country.  We  have  also  to  remember 
that  over  one-third  of  all  the  blindness  in 
this  country  is  traceable  to  a  like  cause,  and 
that  this  occurs  in  innocent  children,  who 
usually  are  less  than  a  week  old  when  their 
sight  is  lost,  as  the  result  of  venereal  in- 
fection. Furthermore,  in  many  of  the 
homes  which  we  all  have  an  opportunity 
to  observe,  there  is  not  that  happiness  ex- 
isting which  would  lead  thinking  people  to 
rush  ruthlessly  into  matrimony,  and  the 
necessity  for  making  divorce  easy  and  the 
marriage  relationship  hard  to  enter  into 
was  never  as  imperative  as  it  is  to-day. 
The  majority  of  the  children  being  born, 
and  in  whose  hands  the  entire  welfare  of 
this  state  in  the  future  will  rest,  are  usually 
those  of  parents  who  are  either  unfitted 


Love  179 

or  unable,  physically,  intellectually,  and 
morally,  to  give  them  such  character  and 
education  as  will  make  them  good  citizens; 
in  other  words,  vice  and  crime  are  breed- 
ing faster  by  far  than  moral  restraint  and 
virtue.  Whenever  we  are  able  to  have  our 
young  men  understand  that  self-control  on 
their  part  is  a  matter  of  first  importance  in 
the  requirements  of  good  citizenship,  and 
a  prime  requisite  if  individual  happiness 
is  desired,  then  and  only  then  will  we  be- 
gin to  find  marriage  becoming  more  popu- 
lar and  divorce  less  to  be  desired  by  those 
who  have  entered  into  this  relationship. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PROBLEMS  OF  THE  FUTURE 

THE  close  of  the  last  century  found 
humanity  under  a  different  aspect  than 
ever  before.  Westward  and  ever  westward 
had  swept  the  course  of  empire  until  the 
early  years  of  this  decade  found  the  Mon- 
golian again  demonstrating  his  superiority 
over  the  Slavonic  people  of  Eastern  Eu- 
rope. For  centuries  the  battles  for  individ- 
ual freedom  of  body  and  mind  had  been 
fought  in  torture  chambers,  at  heresy 
trials,  at  the  stake  of  every  auto-da-fe,  as 
well  as  in  the  legislative  halls  of  insular 
and  continental  Europe,  and  finally  this 
struggle  has  culminated  in  the  greatest, 
fiercest  and  most  devastating  war  of  mod- 
ern times,  which  was  America's  tribute  to 
the  cause  of  democracy  and  freedom.  The 
nations  of  Europe  have  looked  with  wonder 
upon  the  growth  and  sudden  rise  into  im- 
portance of  the  American  Confederacy  of 

180 


Problems  of  the  Future  181 

States,  and  crowned  and  titled  tyrants,  rul- 
ing by  the  "  divine  right,"  have  long  dreaded 
the  absorption  of  American  ideas  by  their 
subjects  or  American  interference  with  the 
course  of  governmental  procedure.  With 
the  advancement  and  dissemination  of 
learning,  democratic  government  has  got 
to  come,  and  woe  to  those  who  oppose  it 
when  the  time  is  ripe.  Poor,  bleeding,  ig- 
norant Russia  is  at  this  minute  in  the 
throes  of  internecine  strife,  and  no  one 
realizes  better  than  those  of  the  autocracy 
who  by  their  selfishness  and  sloth  have 
brought  upon  themselves  the  engulfing  tide 
of  revolution,  what  was  meant  by  the  dis- 
solute associates  of  the  French  Court 
directly  before  the  horrors  of  the  Com- 
mune when  they  used  to  say  "  After  us  the 
deluge."  And  little  as  they  expected  it, 
this  deluge  did  not  wait  for  them  to  leave, 
but  in  many  instances  helped  to  usher 
them  from  the  field  of  human  activity, 
upon  the  block,  before  the  guillotine.  It  is 
not  at  this  time  even  improbable  that  the 
great  Siberian  prisons  may  soon  be  filled 
with  the  bluest  blood  of  royalty,  and  per- 


182  Human  Life 

haps  the  Kara  mines  will  yet  be  worked  in 
by  their  owners,  for  the  benefit  of  the  rev- 
olutionists. But  whether  this  comes  to  pass 
or  not,  we  know  that  we  have  seen  abso- 
lutism gradually  give  way  to  constitu- 
tional forms  of  government,  and  these  in 
turn  become  metamorphosed  into  republics. 
And  in  these  democracies  we  see  a  ten- 
dency to  return  to  a  centralized  form  of 
government,  particularly  when  the  chief 
executive  is  an  individual  whose  judg- 
ment, although  it  is  in  error,  has  been 
actuated  by  motives  which  no  one  can  im- 
pugn. What  then  is  the  meaning  of  this — • 
is  humanity  traveling  in  cycles?  Politically, 
we  can  answer  emphatically,  NO.  The  ease 
with  which  knowledge  is  communicated 
among  people  to-day  and  the  unimpeachable 
integrity  of  the  great  middle  classes  are  the 
surest  guarantee  that  never  will  we  return 
to  the  degrading  darkness  and  servility  of 
the  past,  while  the  trenchant  manner  in 
which  our  press  uses  the  weapons  of  ridicule 
and  cartoon  insures  for  our  posterity  an 
even  better  'and  more  active  public  con- 
science, which  will  demand  duty  performed 


Problems  of  the  Future  183 

commensurate  with  privileges  granted.  Mu- 
nicipalities and  commonwealths  may  be  full 
of  political  rottenness  and  corruption, 
senates  may  be  filled  by  the  paid  agents  of 
capital,  representative  halls  may  be  packed 
by  demagogues  elected  by  the  most  radical 
element  of  organized  labor,  but  regardless 
of  temporary  mistakes,  just  as  long  as  we 
maintain  an  efficient  public  school  system 
and  make  education  compulsory  and  leave 
the  press  unshackled,  we  cannot  under  a 
democratic  form  of  government,  where 
tenure  of  office  is  for  a  short  period  only, 
ever  permanently  retrograde. 

Students  of  contemporaneous  American 
history  who  have  followed  closely  the  'ex- 
posure of  municipal  officials  guilty  of  the 
worst  forms  of  malfeasance,  will  probably 
be  led  to  believe  that  we  are  going  from  bad 
to  worse  politically  in  our  larger  cities. 
Owing  to  the  publicity,  however,  which 
such  matters  get,  and  the  fact  that  our 
citizen  body  in  the  aggregate  respect  hon- 
esty and  integrity,  we  have  nothing  to  fear. 
The  reform  wave  which  oftentimes  sweeps 
with  violence  over  our  cities,  to  be  checked 


184  Human  Life 

only  when  persons  of  much  influence  have 
their  liberty  jeopardized,  will  inevitably 
bring  about  an  understanding  on  the  part 
of  the  majority  of  the  citizens  that  politics 
must  not  be  corrupted  by  people  who  make 
a  business  of  seducing  the  electorate  of  our 
cities.  The  'commission  'form  of  govern- 
ment has  already  done  much  to  lead  the 
way  to  a  better  state  of  affairs,  and  even  if 
it  had  not,  it  would  be  only  a  question  of 
but  a  short  time  until  publicity  itself 
would  bring  about  a  better,  purer,  and 
more  economic  administration  of  govern- 
ment. 

As  a  nation,  we  are  more  seriously  men- 
aced by  the  accumulation  of  gigantic  indi- 
vidual fortunes  than  from  any  other  one  and 
perhaps  from  all  other  sources  combined, 
as  in  but  very  few  cases  does  a  competency 
mean  the  use  of  time  for  a  leisure  of  culture 
and  ennoblement,  but  rather  for  the  devel- 
opment of  selfishness,  avarice,  cruelty,  and 
immorality.  Christ  certainly  did  not  over- 
rate the  awful  disadvantage  of  riches,  par- 
ticularly if  considered  in  relation  to  the 
recent  developments  of  our  criminal 


Problems  of  the  Future  185 

trials  in  our  great  cities,  when  He  said  that 
"It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  pass  through 
the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to 
enter  Heaven."  Wealth  in  the  hands  of  the 
young  is  the  worst  condition  with  which 
they  can  be  surrounded — it  almost  forces 
them  into  the  company  of  irresponsible 
and  immoral  persons  who  lead  them  into 
vice,  thus  sapping  their  vitality,  as  well  as 
engrossing  them  in  habits  of  infamy,  which 
their  weakened  mentality  can  usually  never 
shake  off.  The  direst  poverty,  on  the  other 
hand,  pinches  and  confines  both  the  body 
and  mind  through  lack  of  proper  nutri- 
tion and  time  for  rest  and  recreation,  so 
that  it  is  of  double  importance  to  the  State 
to  see  that  enormous  private  accumula- 
tions of  wealth  do  not  exist,  and  more 
especially  that  they  cannot  be  inherited. 
A  reasonable  sum  should  be  fixed  upon  by 
our  lawmakers  as  the  maximum  amount 
which  could  be  inherited  by  any  one  indi- 
vidual, and  any  part  of  an  estate  which  was 
not  legally  disposed  of  under  this  act,  by 
will  or  otherwise,  should  pass  into  the  un- 
disputed possession  of  the  State  and  should 


186  Human  Life 

be  spent,  not  for  the  ordinary  administra- 
tion of  the  law,  but  for  the  building  of 
schools,  hospitals,  parks,  museums,  and  the 
purchase  of  public  utilities,  such  as  water, 
lighting,  power  and  transportation  com- 
panies. Should  the  means  above  suggested 
prove  too  slow  in  operation  or  inadequate 
to  meet  present  emergencies,  an  income-tax 
might,  for  a  decade  or  two,  be  a  necessity 
— the  returns  from  which  should  be  ex- 
pended as  suggested  above.  Unless  some- 
thing of  this  character  is  done  within  the 
next  century,  it  would  seem  that  our  coun- 
try cannot  continue  to  advance  in  civiliza- 
tion, although  she  might  in  political  pres- 
tige and  commercial  importance,  but  would 
follow  in  the  steps  of  so  many  other  great 
states,  and  sooner  or  later  arrive  at  a  time 
where  her  present  would  be  but  a  meagre 
shadow  of  her  majestic  past. 

If  we  would  have  the  most  that  is  to  be 
got  out  of  life,  we  should  see  to  it  that 
more  time  and  attention  is  paid  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  esthetic  side  of  our 
natures.  Our  public  buildings  are  to-day 
usually  designed  upon  grand  and  majestic 


Problems  of  the  Future  187 

lines;  some  of  our  public  parks  are  laid 
out  with  the  idea  of  showing  the  beauty  of 
simplicity  and  harmony;  a  few  of  our  pri- 
vate mansions  are  architecturally  works  of 
art;  we  have  in  our  large  cities  a  few 
museums  which  are  kept  open  a  few  hours 
to  the  public  upon  days  when  it  has  leisure, 
but,  further  than  this,  how  little  are  we 
taught,  or  do  we  see,  the  beautiful  aside 
from  its  arrangement  in  nature  in  the 
ordinary  routine  of  life?  With  all  but  the 
wealthier  class,  the  getting  of  a  livelihood 
and  the  attention  to  other  material  things, 
consumes  all  the  time  and  energy  available 
under  the  present  regime  so  that  no  leisure 
is  left  to  cultivate  an  appreciation  or  de- 
sire for  the  beautiful.  It  is  the  amount  of 
development  of  the  aesthetic  nature  of  the 
masses  which  is  the  surest  and  most  certain 
index  of  any  civilization.  Schlegel  has 
most  justly  observed  that  "when  men  are 
left  to  the  sole  guidance  of  artificial  law, 
they  become  reduced  to  mere  empty  shad- 
ows and  soulless  forms;  while  the  undivided 
sway  of  nature  leaves  them  savage  and 
loveless."  It  is  therefore  in  this  middle 


188  Human  Life 

ground  that  we  should  provide  stimuli  for 
the  growth  of  this  cult  of  the  beautiful, 
and  to  do  this  we  must  begin  with  the 
.'children.  It  should  be  the  care  of  the 
state  to  see  that  our  streets  are  kept  clean, 
that  grass  plots  and  flower  beds  are  har- 
moniously and  tastily  arranged  at  the  inter- 
section of  the  highways,  wherever  possible, 
and  that  all  houses  intended  for  tenement 
purposes  be  so  built  that  plenty  of  light 
and  air  can  be  always  available.  Powerful 
and  elevating  music  should  be  performed 
in  public  parks  at  frequent  intervals,  when- 
ever the  weather  will  permit  of  general 
gatherings  in  the  open  air.  The  best  talent 
should  be  secured  to  address  the  people 
upon  subjects  of  a  general  nature,  such  as 
topics  of  the  day,  political  economy,  popu- 
lar science,  etc.  Our  school  rooms  should 
not  only  be  clean  and  well  ventilated,  but 
their  walls  should  be  hung  with  interest- 
ing and  beautiful  pictures,  and  our  school 
libraries,  as  well  as  our  public  libraries, 
should  be  numerous,  and  filled  with 
the  best  literature  that  money  can  buy. 
In  our  homes,  we  should  see  that 


Problems  of  the  Future  189 

refining  influence  possible  is  thrown  around 
the  children,  and,  above  all,  they  should 
be  taught  the  beauty  of  self-sacrifice  and 
heroism.       Particularly     should     they    be 
taught  the    value    and    beauty    of    affec- 
tion,  and  they   should  be  both   told  and 
shown  that  the  pleasure  derived  therefrom, 
and  its  value  to  the  human  species,  depends 
almost  wholly  upon  the  self-restraint  and 
self-sacrifice  which  is  exercised  in  connec- 
tion   with   the   intimate    relations   arising 
from  it.    Schlegel  again  speaks  right  to  the 
point,    "  Every    inordinate   indulgence    in- 
volves a  corresponding  amount  of  suffering. 
.   .    .  Others,  on  the  contrary,  who  devote 
themselves  to  glorious  deeds  and  seek  en- 
joyment only  in  the  intervals  of  more  ser- 
ious exertion,  will  have  their  best  reward 
in    the    pure,    unchanging  happiness   pur- 
chased by  such  self-denial.     Pleasure,  in- 
deed, has  a  higher  zest  when  spontaneous 
and  self-created;  and  it  rises  in  value  in 
proportion  to  its  affinity  with  that  perfec- 
tion of  beauty  in  which  moral  excellence  is 
allied  to  external  charms." 

Our  attention  as  a  nation  to  the  acquisi- 


190  Human  Life 

tion  of  material  wealth  to  the  utter  disre- 
gard of  our  aesthetic  natures  may  very 
largely  account  for  the  fact  that  America 
has  produced  but  few  of  those  literary  and 
artistic  stars  which  are  almost  always  coin- 
cident with  commercial  prosperity.  We 
seem  to  have  neither  passed  the  Elizabethan 
nor  the  Victorian  age  in  literature  upon 
this  side  of  the  water — not  because  we  have 
not  produced  talent  along  these  lines,  but 
because  the  quantity  has  been  so  small  and 
seems  to  be  growing  less  every  year.  Since 
the  opening  of  the  present  century,  there 
has  practically  been  nothing  produced 
which  will  demand  recognition  among  lit- 
erary and  artistic  people  after  our  own 
generation. 

There  seems  to  be  only  one  other  great 
problem  before  humanity  to-day.  Next  to 
the  distribution  of  wealth,  it,  however,  is 
undoubtedly  the  most  perplexing  question 
with  which  every  democratic  country  will 
sooner  or  later  have  to  deal.  In  its  two 
forms — as  prostitution  and  the  restriction 
of  birth — it  constitutes  what  for  a  better 
name  is  commonly  called  "  the  social  evil." 


Problems  of  the  Future  19i 

Under  our  civilization  and  in  our  system 
of  social  caste  we  have  no  class  of  serfs; 
but  as  low,  if  not  lower,  than  these  we 
have  those  women  who  sell  their  favors  for 
money  to  anyone  who  will  pay  the  price. 
Unfortunately,  we  have  not  yet  reached 
the  place  where  the  majority  of  our  male 
population  decry  moral  looseness  on  the 
part  of  women  with  whom  they  are  not 
(connected  by  blood  or  matrimony;  al- 
though this  may  or  may  not  have  been  done 
for  profit,  as  the  case  may  be.  It  is  still 
largely  a  matter  as  to  how  general  the 
knowledge  is,  as  to  how  great  is  the  crime. 
Nevertheless,  with  those  unfortunates  whose 
character  is  generally  known,  our  modern 
society  has  no  place — they  are  outcasts  in 
the  true  sense  of  the  word.  Worse  than  all, 
is  the  fact  that  society  refuses  to  proscribe 
immorality  of  this  nature  in  man  as  it  does 
in  woman — consequently,  she  alone  before 
the  world  is  made  to  suffer  for  what  he  is 
as  much  to  blame  for  as  she  is,  and  very 
frequently  more  so.  The  incongruity  of 
this,  under  a  democratic  form  of  govern- 
ment, is  readily  apparent  to  anyone  and 


192  Human  Life 

that  such  a  condition  of  affairs  may  not 
exist  permanently  under  our  civilization 
cannot  be  doubted.  It  would  therefore 
seem  that  either  one  of  two  things  will  have 
to  come  to  pass  in  the  future;  either  we 
shall  have  to  regard  our  prostitutes  as  a 
class,  as  they  were  probably  esteemed  in 
ancient  Greece,  or  we  shall  have  to  attach 
an  equal  calumny  to  man  as  we  now  attach 
to  woman  in  these  relations.  In  the  first 
instance,  we  tacitly  admit  that  the  nature 
of  man  differs  from  that  of  woman,  in  that 
continence  and  monogamy  are  not  fitted  for 
him  but  are  for  her,  which  every  fair-minded 
person  knows  to  be  a  falsehood;  or  else  in 
the  other  alternative  we  have  the  entire 
sentiment  of  this  country  upon  this  whole 
matter  to  make  over  and  that  against  those 
who  are  in  power.  Mrs.  Parsons,  in  her 
carefully  prepared  and  comprehensive 
study,  entitled  "  The  Family,"  does  not,  it 
would  seem,  speak  other  than  satirically 
when  she  proposes  that  the  same  license  be 
allowed  woman  before  she  bears  children 
as  society  now  allows  man.  This  would 
seem  to  be  a  step  backward,  inasmuch  as 


Problems  of  the  Future  193 

there  is  to-day,  with  no  small  percentage  of 
the  people  in  this  country,  a  decided  stigma 
attached  to  promiscuity  on  the  part  of 
man,  and  this  should  be  fostered  and  en- 
couraged, at  any  expense.  Her  recommend- 
ation of  early  trial  marriage  also  smacks 
of  the  satirical,  while  her  propositions  "  to 
make  the  transmission  of  venereal  diseases 
in  marriage  a  penal  offense,  to  render 
identical  the  age  of  consent  with  the  legal 
age  of  marriage,  and  to  abolish  all  laws 
requiring  parental  consent  to  marriage,  to 
consider  parental  duties  the  same  in  the 
case  of  an  illegitimate  as  in  that  of  a  legit- 
imate child,  and  to  abolish  legal  separation 
and  divorce  law  provisions  prohibiting  the 
defendant  to  remarry,"  must  appeal  to  all 
fair-minded  persons  as  exactly  what  is 
needed.  With  sentiment  once  well  started 
in  this  direction,  we  can  hope  that  the  next 
two  or  three  decades  will  accomplish  much 
— more  particularly  if  we  lose  our  money 
madness  and  return  from  "the  flesh-pots " 
to  things  that  are  of  real  value.  The  hap- 
piness and  virtue  of  our  children  will  never 
be  secure  until  society  is  founded  upon  a 


194  Human  Life 

basis  of  real  monogamy,  and  male  as  well 
as  female  continence  before  marriage,  and 
the  sooner  this  fact  is  admitted  and  en- 
forced the  better  will  it  be  for  the  human 
race.  In  this  molding  of  sentiment, 
woman  can  be  and  is  an  important  factor, 
and  her  position  becomes  the  more  com- 
manding as  she  becomes  more  independent 
financially.  If  she  demands  purity  on  the 
part  of  her  male  friends — sooner  or  later 
it  will  be  accorded  to  her — if  she  insists 
upon  it  in  her  lover,  her  Prince  Charming 
will  come  forth  with  the  quality. 

Concerning  that  part  of  this  question 
which  deals  with  the  restriction  of  birth, 
it  has  always  seemed  that  outside  of  vol- 
untary childless  marriages  the  importance 
of  "race  suicide"  was  over-estimated. 
Where  there  is  no  pathological  reason  why 
children  should  not  be  born,  there  can  be 
no  question  but  that  voluntary  childless 
marriage  is  what  has  been  well  termed  "a 
progressive  substitute  for  prostitution." 
But  where  not  used  to  consummate  this 
end,  but  to  keep  within  the  limits  of  the 
proper  education  and  the  bringing  up  of 


Problems  of  the  Future  195 

the  progeny  of  a  human  pair,  such  practice 
as  does  not  involve  infanticide  cannot  be 
against  the  best  interests  of  the  race.  Con- 
sequently, it  would  seem  that,  before  mar- 
riage, young  men  and  women  should  be- 
come acquainted  with  the  fundamental 
phenomena  of  conception,  with  the  purpose 
in  view  of  regulating  the  number  of  chil- 
dren which  they  bring  into  the  world  to 
such  a  number  as  they  can  properly  edu- 
cate and  equip  for  the  struggle  of  exist- 
ence. Such  biological  knowledge  as  is 
necessary  to  attain  this  should  become  the 
common  property  of  humanity,  and  the 
state  should  not  restrict  the  sale  of 
such  articles  as  would  further  this  end. 
On  the  other  hand,  young  men  and  women 
should  be  taught  that  it  is  their  duty  to 
have  what  children  they  can  care  for,  and 
at  such  times  and  under  such  conditions 
during  wedlock  as  will  insure  their  descend- 
ants the  best  physical  and  mental  equip- 
ment. Infanticide  in  any  form  and  at  any 
time,  except  when  performed  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  a  reputable  physician,  should 
be  made  a  crime  and  proper  punishment 


196  Human  Life 

provided  therefor.  In  this  phase  of  the 
question,  there  is  also  a  place  for  the  fos- 
tering of  proper  sentiment.  'Parents 
should  show  their  children  that  they  con- 
stitute a  very  large  proportion  of  their 
happiness,  and  that  child-bearing,  within 
the  limits  above  set  forth,  is  a  privilege  and 
not  a  burden.  Under  these  conditions,  vol- 
untary childless  marriage  will  become  less 
frequent  and  the  family  will  occupy  the 
position  of  primary  importance  in  the  state 
to  which  it  is  entitled. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  far-reacti- 
ing  influence  of  the  Woman's  Rights  move- 
ment. The  agitation  to-day  extends  com- 
pletely around  the  world,  and  even  such 
Oriental  countries  as  Turkey,  Japan,  and 
China  are  being  forced  to  realize  that  they 
have  it  to  face  in  the  near  future.  Politic- 
ally, there  can  be  no  question  but  that  the 
movement  will  tend  more  towards  the  pur- 
ity of  the  administration  of  justice  and  the 
elimination  of  corruption  in  politics  than 
any  movement  which  has  been  started  with- 
in the  history  of  man ;  and,  as  examples  of 
this,  we  have  only  to  look  for  ample  proof 


Problems  of  the  Future  197 

in  countries  where  women  have  been  given 
full  rights  of  citizenship,  such  as  ^ew  Zea- 
land, and  in  Colorado,  Idaho,  Wyoming,  arid 
Nevada  States  in  this  country.  Socially^ 
we  have  already  noticed  the  effect  which 
this  movement  will  have  as  tending  towards 
the  purity  of  masculine  morals.  Econom- 
ically, however,  it  presents  a  far  different 
aspect,  since  every  woman  who  enters  com- 
mercial life,  whether  in  the  office  or  fac- 
tory, diminishes  the  child-bearing  popula- 
tion of  the  earth,  and  with  the  greater 
sense  of  justice  and  equity  which  comes 
from  the  higher  education,  the  demands  of 
woman  will  not  only  become  more  and  more 
exacting,  but  she  will  be  becoming  con- 
stantly more  potent  in  their  enforcement. 
The  economic  phase  of  this  problem  is  so 
great  that  it  is  impossible  to  state  at  this 
time  what  the  outcome  will  be,  but  a  still 
further  tremendous  decrease  in  the  birth 
rate  is  absolutely  sure  to  come  about;  and 
it  would  seem  that  possibly  those  evils 
which  will,  in  the  long  run,  be  most  largely 
rectified  by  this  movement  will  be  aug- 
mented in  the  immediate  future,  as  a  result 


198  Human  Life 

of  this  agitation,  until  such  a  time  as  the 
majority  of  our  citizens  may  be  given  such 
education  as  will  enable  them  to  reason 
more  logically  about  the  fundamental  prop- 
ositions of  life. 

We  have  looked  at  a  few  of  the  phases 
of  human  existence;  what  shall  be  said  of 
the  value  of  life?  Modern  science  has  for-" 
ever  taken  from  us  the  comforting  delu- 
sions of  a  personal  Deity,  an  immortality 
for  the  soul  in  a  personal  sense,  and  the 
idea  of  our  possessing  a  will,  free  to  force 
our  direction  whithersoever  we  elect.  It 
has  left,  in  place  of  these,  the  idea  of  duty — 
individual  and  personal  responsibility — 
which  cannot  be  shirked.  George  Eliot,  in 
the  epilogue  of  Eomola,  preaches  as  strong 
a  sermon  as  she  ever  could  to  Mr.  Meyers3 
when  she  talked  to  him  upon  that  now 
famous  evening  in  May  at  Cambridge.  Car- 
lyle,  no  less  than  his  countrywoman,  real- 
ized, not  only  the  importance  of  living  up 
to  individual  responsibility,  but  also  under- 
stood how  hard  it  often  was  to  know  just 
what  should  be  done.  His  rule,  which  is 
most  worthy  of  emulation,  was :  "  Do  the 


Problems  of  the  Future  199 

nearest  duty  that  lies  to  your  hand,  and  al- 
ready the  next  duty  will  have  become 
plainer."  In  order  that  we  may  be  the  better 
prepared  to  fulfill  our  responsibilities,  we 
should  obtain  all  the  knowledge  possible, 
even  although  it  may  cause  us  lack  of  in- 
sight temporarily,  and  much  mental  agony. 
Faith  is  not  comparable  to  knowledge,  any 
more  than  wishing  is  equal  to  the  obtaining 
of  results.  We  should  therefore  be  aggres- 
sive in  the  discharge  of  our  duty — liberal 
and  tolerant,  pure  and  upright,  loving  and 
unselfish,  virtuous  and  truly  religious,  so 
that  it  may  be  said  of  us,  when  we  have 
finished,  that  the  world  is  a  little  better, 
and  life  has  been,  for  as  many  as  possible, 
a  little  happier  for  our  having  lived. 


THE  END 


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FEB  12  1942 

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APR  19  1942 

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HOV       AO  l*rtv 

LD  21-1007n-7,'33 

46 1241 


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